Dreams and Nightmares
by Rahlia Indigo
Summary: Assorted short stories. SasuHina. Contains cuteness, subtle irony, several headaches, and the author's almost nonexistant creativity. Settings range from in the Naruto universe and out.
1. Nightmare

A/N: My first fanfiction, a collection of SasuHina short stories.

* * *

He moved his legs furiously, up and out, up and out, forward, forward, forward. He could feel the rocks and needles piercing his feet, the blood running thickly out of the corners of his mouth, down his jaw, his chin, his throat. Every step brought him more and more pain. It was in his feet, where the rocks and needles seemed to cling, it was in his lungs, where all the air had suddenly disappeared. And it was in every single one of the wounds created by the swords sticking out of his body, the wounds being ripped more with every push of the foot downward, every ragged breath he took, every single beat of his heart. 

But that pain was nothing compared to the agonizing despair felt every time he heard a scream in the crimson night, a female voice pleading, begging, for all her suffering to end, right then and there. The torture was too much to bear with. Death was preferable.

He could see her in the distance, her dark purple hair shaking as she sobbed. A dark figure loomed over her broken form, his face shrouded in shadow, his voice inaudible from so far a distance.

There she was! Just a little more distance, almost there!

But as the dark haired young man took another step, and another, and another, he roared in frustration. He was getting nowhere, the distance remained the same, the swords pierced him repeatedly, again, again, again and his body could take no more, and his heart refused to pump. He collapsed on the ground, the air much too dense too breath. It suffocated him, smothered him, warm heavy air that weighed down every last cell in his body. And still this pain was nothing. Nothing compared to the agony that choked his heart as he heard her scream, heard her plead for her own life to end.

Until finally, his eyes seeing nothing, unable to move, unable to draw one more breath, he heard everything clearly, as if he stood right next to her, unable to help, remaining only a spectator to her distress.

"Please! J-just kill m-me now! It hurts…. It hurts so much!" she sobbed, inhaling sharply and crying in turns.

A calm sigh and the sound of a sword being unsheathed were heard over her weeping. And a horribly familiar voice said coldly, "Silly girl. You lack strength. Weak. That is all you've ever been, all you could ever be. Letting you live would be a crime. Say goodbye."

Quite suddenly, three pairs of eyes opened, the eyes of the young man agonizing on the ground, the tear-filled white eyes of the woman, and the most terrifying of them all; the scarlet and jet-black eyes of the shadow towering over the girl, spinning lazily as they peered down at her.

Finally the black haired young man could finally gaze upon the man who had brought so much pain to him.

The man with the unsheathed sword took a slow step forward, his features finally visible to the pair on the ground. Both of them gasped. He was so familiar. He had haunted the man on the ground his entire life.

She screamed as the sword cut through the thick atmosphere, still disbelieving. The man in pain roared in fury. And the looming figure looked down silently at the two, face devoid of any emotion, as he brought his blade down quickly on the girl.

The dark haired young man on the floor, his mind, body, and soul weakened could still not believe his eyes.

Because the man killing one of the only people he had ever loved was none other than…

Himself.

* * *

A/N: Really happy with how this turned out. Does it feel unfinished? Not complete in itself?

Reviews are appreciated, constructive and otherwise. Tell me what you think!


	2. Reservations

It took 37 calls to the place, all of them unsuccessful. Finally, on the 38th, having almost lost hope, he had gotten a reservation. 

She wore her nicest dress with her nicest jewelry and bothered to do something with her hair. Held up with shining crystal berets, the up-do worked nicely with the outfit.

He wore the only suit he owned and shined his shoes. He tried, in vain, to brush his hair. He used the cologne given to him for his last birthday for the first time.

They paid the $20 for the valet parking. They entered the restaurant and were led to their table by a man dressed in a suit with actual coattails and white gloves. Sasuke didn't know they actually still made suits with coattails anymore.

Menus written completely in French held firmly in their palms, they listened as the waiter reeled off a long list of wine after wine, cognac after cognac, fancy champagne after fancy champagne. Hinata opted for plain water; he chose one of the random names he had heard.

While they waited for their meal to be served, she visited the ladies' room. Silver sinks and potpourri decorated the place and the toilets were so complicated she left without having sat on a single one.

Finally, after a hushed conversation about how exclusive and fine the restaurant was, their meals arrived.

Hinata smiled eagerly as her plate was put before her; Sasuke's face remained the emotionless mask, one eyebrow slightly raised in anticipation.

The place was fancy, exclusive, expensive. Considering the price of the food, they expected nothing less than a banquet fit for a king's entire royal court.

And they received the tiniest cut of meat, half a teaspoon of something mashed, drizzled over with some kind of gravy or sauce. The worst kind of disappointment.

Sasuke gazed down at his serving of food, his eyebrows slowly coming down, his expression becoming more and more livid by the second. Hinata looked down at the many spoons and forks, confused as to which one to use. A sudden movement made her look up, her eyebrows rose in confusion as she saw a couple of bills flutter down on the table, Sasuke stand up and begin to walk away. Almost tripping over in her haste to catch up to him, she grabbed her purse and tottered after him, blushing as the entire restaurant looked over at the couple. She hated being in the spotlight.

The waiter caught up to her. "Were you not satisfied with something?" he asked, his features twisted into a look of concern. "Em…. y-yes... but it's ok, we'll just be off, t-thank you for your service," she managed to stammer out. "We've p-paid for the meal as w-well."

Sasuke stood with his back to her, waiting for the car to show up. He muttered incoherently, certain words floating on the chilly night wind. "Expensive as hell…. worth shit… gay waiters…"

Tripping again, she broke one of her heels. She sighed, "Those were my nicest shoes too…"

The valet boy jumped out from the car, handing Sasuke the keys. His required, "Have a nice night sir," was unheard as the car squealed away, turning sharply at the corner and heading off into the distance.

She said nothing in the dark confines of the car, his murmured rant still continuing as if he hadn't noticed she was even there. Instead, she watched him with wide eyes, watched his lips move furiously fast as he said obscenities and vented his frustrations under his breath. The dark shadows under his eyes were made darker in the small light thrown off from the car stereo, whose bass was the only thing discernible in the lowered volume.

Had she paid attention to the road, she wouldn't have been surprised when bright lights hit her sensitive eyes and an unclear voice sounded over the speaker. "May I take your order?"

"Yes, I'd like a #2 with coke please," said Sasuke after he had quickly scanned over the menu. He turned to her expectantly and it took her a moment to realize it was her turn to order. "Would that be all for you tonight," asked the indifferent voice on the other side. "A salad, please, the lightest dressing… and iced tea," she said quietly. He repeated it into the speaker. "That'll be $10.56. Please pull up the next window."

Once they were back at his apartment, the broken heels came off. They were much too uncomfortable. Sasuke's jacket was thrown carelessly over the back of the couch, his tie loosened and shoes kicked off. Then he began eating like he'd never seen a burger in his entire life. He finally looked at her, his cheeks full of fries and ketchup and burger. "What," he asked after swallowing with difficulty, wondering why on earth she was laughing at him. "You've got some ketchup on your lip," she said between giggles. Not seeing any reason to waste a napkin, he licked it off and continued on with his meal. "You haven't touched your salad," he stated between ripping off chunks of his burger. She wasn't hungry, not anymore. Not after going to the most exclusive, most well-regarded restaurant in town to find it was a total dud. Not after having broken her nicest heels.

But she started it in on her salad anyway, taking occasional sips of her iced tea, wondering why she had ever even agreed to go out to dinner with him. As long as she had ever known him, he never showed any interest in anyone, least of all her, and he had always had a temper worthy of a pit bull. Yet she had agreed, and she still asked herself why. Even more perplexing was that she hadn't actually minded him storming out in the middle of dinner that night, almost leaving her behind, and being the reason her heel had broken. She was just happy that he'd finally stopped being so enigmatic and confirmed some of her suspicions; he did like her, on some level, that level still a mystery to her.

So the restaurant hadn't lived up to expectations. So he had spent $110.56 on dinner, the smallest fraction of that amount having bought the largest portion of the dinner. So he had hated the foreign wine, so he had scared her with his angry litany and his wild driving. So what? She was content having been noticed and he was satisfied with having finally asked her out. So the night hadn't been a total fiasco, right? Right.

* * *

I wasn't completely satisfied with this one. Something is wrong with it, I'm positive. Too bad I have no idea what that is.

All reviews are appreciated, constructive and otherwise. Shoot, I don't even really mind flamers; I'm sure they only flame because they care. Thank you for reading!


	3. Between the Planks

There was a certain bench in Konoha Park, a lone bench that was located between two tall trees. The park was mostly visited by the children of the village, the trees climbed by squirrels, and the bench was for the use of anyone that cared to use it. Yet nobody usually cared to use it; everyone was much too busy exerting energy on the swings and slides to care about the bench. The bench wasn't the nicest one in the park; in fact, it was the most vandalized by the teenage delinquents with time on their hands.

The only one that used it was a shy girl, also with time on her hands, but too good to vandalize anything other than a plain purple notebook usually kept hidden beneath the bench, where nobody bothered to look. Living in a house where everyone had 360 degree vision allowed for no privacy whatsoever, despite the no Byakugan inside the Hyuuga compound rule. Her younger sister Hanabi was notorious for breaking this rule and she was taking no chances on her secrets being read by anyone in her home. Another problem if her notebook was discovered would be the embarrassment she would feel. A diary (she shuddered at the word) at the age of 18? She'd be scorned by the entire clan.

It mightn't seem prudent for her secrets to be hiding under a bench in a public park. Anyone could reach underneath the wood and find the journal by mistake, or perhaps on purpose, if she was feeling paranoid. But she had chosen this particular bench after many days observing the park and all the places she could possible hide her notebook that would keep it safe, dry, and most importantly, hidden from anyone's eyes but her own.

She would come here just after sunset, or whenever she had a free moment. She had often thought about sneaking here in the middle of the night, especially on the nights when insomnia lingered in her room like the bad stench of blood. But she was much too scared she'd be discovered, so that remained nothing more than a notion.

And so she would write. She'd write about her daily life. Training with the rest of team 8 was a common topic. Conversations had with Hanabi and Neji were very common as well. She refrained as much as she could from writing about Naruto, but sometimes her pencil would flit across the page and her innermost feelings would come out before she had even noticed she had been writing about him. But that was easily fixed. It was pencil after all, and she would just reach for the pink eraser and make it so it had never happened.

- - -

Sasuke awoke one hot summer night sweating profusely with his head throbbing from the omnipresent migraine. No matter how many headache pills he took, it never went away. He was positive it had something to do with the nightmares, also positive that as soon as the nightmares went away, so would the headaches. But he knew that would never happen, not anytime soon anyway.

I hate this. I haven't had a good night's sleep in years.

He opened his window, irritated by the fact that it was cooler outside than inside his apartment. But the small bit of air didn't make it any less suffocating inside the room.

Frowning, not caring that his feet were bare and his chest shirtless, he walked out his door, not bothering to lock the place. Nobody would bother steal the single chair he owned anyway.

He felt better as soon as he was outside. It was his nature to be outside, after all. He had never enjoyed being restricted in the 20 by 20 apartment.

He was mildly surprised when he found himself standing in Konoha Park. And then it just made sense to be there. He had always wanted to come here when he was a kid, back when his family was still alive. Too bad he had always been wasting his time trying to match up to his brother's greatness. And it was all in vain, he thought dryly. Itachi's still out there… and I'm still too weak to beat him.

The lone bench farthest from the playground looked appealing.

He sat down on the hard wooden bench, leaning back with his arms behind his head, his sweat cold on his skin. He sat there for an hour with his eyes closed, much more comfortable than he ever could have imagined.

Finally, he opened his eyelids slowly and looked down at the bench. He thought he saw something between the tight, wooden planks, but he couldn't be sure. He got down on his hands and knees and looked underneath the bench. Nothing.

Then he noticed the double plank structure of the bench. One layer on top, another layer on the bottom, with space in between.

He snaked his hand between the two rows, barely wincing as splinters clung to his fingers. It didn't matter once his hand returned, triumphant with a purple notebook held between his thumb and forefinger.

Now genuinely curious, he opened the notebook eagerly and read.

The writing was delicate, the pencil not having been pressed too hard to the paper. He flipped through the book, snatches of the writings popping out at him. It seemed to him this person was melancholy, though they hid it well from the people surrounding them.

He had reached the most recent entry.

_Father was being father again. I guess I can't blame him for getting upset with me. As heiress, I'm supposed to be strong, the perfect Hyuuga. Instead I'm weak. Talk has been going around the elders about making Hanabi the future leader instead. And as much as it hurts to know that it's because I'm unsuitable for the job, there's also a part of me that is glad I might not be leader some day. Imagine me as leader! It's almost laughable. Stuttering at inter-clan meetings, and looking down whenever the Hokage tries to look me in the eye. What kind of leader is that?_

Something inside him stirred at the words written on the paper. It reminded him of himself, actually, a him haunted by an older brother constantly telling him how pathetic he was.

Without thinking about it he pulled out the pencil held in place by the spiral on the notebook. He turned the page and started writing in his messy handwriting.

_You shouldn't sell yourself short._

_Weakness is nothing but a state of mind._

He returned the pencil to the spiral and the notebook to its hiding place between the boards. He then walked back to the stifling confines of his apartment, dormant thoughts awakening at how true the statement was.

Reviews are very much appreciated


	4. Porn

Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

* * *

Sasuke's face froze in a look of terror. 

And then the corners of his mouth turned up in a secret smile. This wasn't half bad.

Hinata came up behind him.

"What are you looking at, Sasuke," she asked curiously.

Fumbling with the mouse for a second, he slid the pointer up to the corner of the screen and pressed the red X before she could see anything on the monitor before him.

"Nothing," answered Sasuke, working hard to compose his face.

Disbelieving, Hinata asked, "What exactly were you looking at?" Sasuke began to shut down the computer. "I told you already. Nothing."

He walked away, presumably to get some juice. She followed him, but only after her finger had surreptitiously pressed the power button.

"You know," said Hinata as she walked around the kitchen table, "If you don't tell me what you were looking at, I'll only assume it was something worse than it really was."

He straightened after retrieving his juice from the bottom shelf in the fridge. After taking a long gulp from the bottle, he said, "Porn. I was looking at porn." That should get her off his back.

Her eyes went wide. "I didn't know you liked that kind of stuff…" she said.

He glanced at her briefly before settling himself down on the floor of the living room. The corners of his lips twitched in amusement.

"Well, now you know."

Now preoccupied with looking over some scrolls Kakashi had given him, he didn't noticed how Hinata backed out of the room to head over to the computer.

As she sat, impatiently tapping her foot for the internet browser to load, she willed herself not to believe it was true. He had never shown any sign of liking that kind of stuff. But, at the beginning, he had never really shown any sign of liking her either. This might be the same kind of thing.

Finally! The internet browser was up. Luckily, his history had been saved. A small frown now visible on her face, she looked at where he had been.

Hmm… this looks like the place. A site for fan fictions. He had been lying. This wasn't porn!

A heavy weight seeming to have been lifted off her shoulders, she scrolled down to what he had been looking at before.

As she read over the fan fiction, her cheeks got warmer and a huge smile adorned her face.

_It was then that Sasuke realized what the feeling inside his chest was._

_He had feelings for this girl._

_It had taken him forever to realize. How could he have ever been so dense? But finally, after seeing her shy smile, hearing her endearing stutter, and watching her for so long he realized with a jolt that his conclusion was right._

_He loved her._

_Now he could only hope she loved him back._

Sensing a presence standing behind her, she fumbled with the mouse and slid it up to the corner, clicking the X quickly. Not bothering with properly shutting the machine off, she pulled the cord, something she'd always been told not to do.

"What were you looking at," a suspicious Sasuke asked. His eyes narrowed as he took in the scene before him. A flustered Hinata, sitting at the computer. Definitely not a good thing.

She averted her eyes as she answered quietly, the blush on her cheeks becoming more and more pronounced by the second.

"Porn."

* * *

A/N: If ninjas can have walkie-talkies, who says they can't have computers? 


	5. Coffee

_Coffee_

_Ring_

A bell clanged somewhere inside the coffee shop as the door opened, chilly air entering for the brief second before the door closed.

In entered Sasuke, his jacket warm, his scarf thick, and his scowl glum. The bottoms of his pants slightly wet, his boots sloshed as he approached the counter and ordered his preferred drink. Coffee, black. No bells and whistles, no cream, no sugar. It wasn't really coffee if it had cream and sugar.

After being handed his drink by a girl with long blonde hair and an annoying voice, he sat down in the table near the corner with the window. Pulling one of the free newspapers towards him, his scowl became more pronounced. Bad news, just like always. There was tension between the neighboring country and his own. He wouldn't care less but knew that if it turned into a war he'd have to pay for it in his taxes.

He took a sip of his coffee, the warm bitter liquid feeling good against his throat. He enjoyed his Saturday mornings quiet. Inwardly, he thanked the rain for keeping the shop so empty and peaceful.

He regretted it almost instantly, however. Because, had it not been for the rain, the blonde barista would have been swamped with customers clamoring up to the counter to order something or other. But because the rain was gone, she had a lot of free time. And she thought the scowling young man was exactly her type. Moody, but still sexy enough to look good if they walked together, hand in hand.

Without even asking for permission, she sat down in the chair across from him. She waited for him to look up, a huge grin on her raspberry lips. And he had noticed her. He just saw no reason to pretend he actually cared or even waste a moment of his time to tell her very rudely to go away and let him continue drinking his coffee in peace.

Realizing that he had remained completely engrossed in his newspaper, she gave him a light tap to the shoulder. Unable to ignore her any longer, his head snapped up and he growled, "What."

Her grin grew. "Hi, I'm Ino. You don't mind if I sit here, do you? You're the only customer right now, and you looked lonely."

As if he didn't know her true intentions for taking a seat at his table. "I do mind," said Sasuke. "Leave…please," he added as an afterthought.

Ino frowned. "Aww, don't be like that! What's your name? What do you do for a living? Do you have a girlfriend?" Her eyes shone brightly, impatient to find out more about him.

He took a slow sip of his coffee. He hadn't come here for this. He came for the coffee, he came for the newspaper, and the silence if he was lucky. But not for the flirting coffee girls.

After taking his time with his drink, the corners of his mouth turned up into a sneer, knowing the impatience building up in the girl in front of him. "My name is not important. My job; that's none of your business. And my relationship status doesn't concern you," he said softly. Her grin slipped off her face like sap from a tree as he continued. "And if you don't leave my table right now, you can bet the owner will hear about this," he said threateningly.

She stood up quickly, almost knocking her chair over in her hurriedness. She wouldn't bother _him_ again.

He returned eagerly to his newspaper, his coffee in his left hand. Stupid girl, ruining his Saturday.

_Ring_

The bell clinked somewhere inside the shop, chilly wind entering for a brief second before it closed again. A figure cloaked in a raincoat entered, closing a dripping wet umbrella as she did. As she removed the raincoat and hung it up on a peg near the door, a girl with her long purple hair pulled back into a long ponytail was revealed. She grabbed an apron from another peg and said hurriedly, "Sorry I'm late Ino, Father wouldn't let me out unless I was completely covered up."

Ino abandoned her gossip magazine to greet her. "Don't worry about it, Hinata. It's a pretty slow day, only one customer." She narrowed her eyes at the man in the corner with his head bent over the newspaper, still completely absorbed in the news and the coffee.

Hinata followed her gaze. But she couldn't understand why Ino was looking at him so crossly. She shrugged, not wanting to bother her.

Grabbing a rag, Hinata set herself to cleaning the tables, although having just opened they weren't really dirty. She just liked being occupied.

As she neared Sasuke's table with her cleaning rag, she accidentally bumped his table with her hip, causing the table to shake slightly and his attention to come away from the newspaper, ready to be angry at the blonde Ino again.

Had he not been clear? He didn't want her at his table, how dense could the blonde possibly be?

But he was left speechless as he realized that it wasn't Ino who had crashed into his table. Instead, it was another girl, probably the reason the bell had rung earlier. Her hair was long and dark and her eyes an innocent white as she said, "I'm s-sorry sir, was an accident…"

She moved away quickly, always fearful of someone being angry at her. Ino had been watching as well, and was waiting for the torrent of angry words that she expected would come from the mouth of the irritable young man.

But they never came.

Instead he muttered, "Don't worry about it," and took a gulp of his drink, leaning into his newspaper once more. He was shocked at his own response. She had no right to bump into his table and he was _supposed_ to be angry about it. How very odd of him… It couldn't be because she was an attractive looking girl. Otherwise he might have been very kind to the other one, the blonde one. Perhaps it was because she emanated shyness? Yes, that must be it. No need to bother himself about it.

Ino's eyebrows were raised. He hadn't behaved like that earlier. But she figured Hinata seemed to have that sort of effect on people. Nobody could really be mad at her.

The morning went on in much the same pattern. Slowly, young couples, the rare wandering tourist, and groups of rowdy teens stepped inside the coffee shop to warm their hands and their insides. Ino prepared coffee as fast as the espresso machine would allow, Hinata standing at the register and helping as well. And still, although he had finished his first coffee long ago, the dark haired man in the corner continued to sit, his eyes infrequently leaving the print on the paper. He'd occasionally get up and order another one, and another one, and yet another one, until Ino took to just yelling across the room to ask if he wanted more. Hinata would have to deliver his coffee to his table, but she never seemed to notice his smirk of amusement at her blush.

She didn't like the man, he made her feel uncomfortable, though she couldn't quite pinpoint why that was. Maybe because he just seemed to reread the same page of the newspaper over and over again. Or perhaps because sometimes – and she couldn't be one hundred percent sure – she felt he watched her when she wasn't looking. But she'd shrug off the notion, casting it aside as paranoia.

He left at noon, standing up stiffly and pushing his rolled up newspaper under his arm. He spared Hinata one last glance as he tossed his cup in the trashcan. And with one final _ring_ he was gone.

She let out a sigh of relief she didn't even know she had been holding. What a strange, strange man. But he was gone now, so it was no longer a problem.

It became a problem, however, when he returned the next day. He arrived even earlier than last time. It was not raining that day, but the sky remained a dull gray and it was still quite cold outside.

Hinata had arrived on time that day, and as the first customer of the day entered, she was pulling out pastries from the shop's large industrial ovens. She nearly dropped the tray she was holding when she saw who it was. The same man from the day before, the quiet, moody one.

I hope he doesn't stay as long as he did yesterday, thought Hinata.

But he did stay as long as yesterday, and even longer. The same pattern as before repeated itself. The only difference was, this time he had brought a large book. It must be some book, thought Hinata as she made her 10:00 rounds to wipe down crumbs and small spills of coffee from the tables. She steered clear of the table in the corner, however, not wanting to disrupt his fascination with his book.

She began to fear that he would never leave when finally, at 1:00 o'clock, he picked up his thick book, thrust it under his arm, and exited the shop. Hinata had a feeling she hadn't seen the last of him.

For every day after that, Sasuke was a regular customer at the coffee place. He arrived every day, a mere ten minutes after the shop had opened, and sat himself down for at least an hour on weekdays, and longer still on weekends. He always sat at exactly the same table, with exactly the same drink (black, no bells and whistles, no cream, no sugar; it wasn't coffee if it had cream and sugar) and set himself to reading the paper and then the giant tomes he brought from home. Hinata found it odd, and became even more perplexed when Ino informed her that Sasuke never came on Wednesdays.

Wednesdays were Hinata's day off.

As the weeks went by, as the months went by, Hinata became increasingly more and more agitated. What was with this guy? There had to be other coffee shops in town, what was so special about this one? Feeling that she couldn't shrug off her fears as paranoia any longer, she began to wonder what would happen if she confronted him. She was absorbed with the enigma he presented, and had often caught herself watching him from behind a stack of coffee sacks. She had scalded her hand once, her mind not on the espresso machine, but on the man sitting in the corner.

Realizing how very deleterious this man was to her job and her overall health, she decided she would ask him about it.

Ino was running late that day, and she was standing at the sink washing some measuring cups.

_Ring_

The familiar ring sent chills up her spine as she turned around slowly, already knowing who it was. Sasuke stood at the counter, his eyes looking at nothing in particular as he waited for her to finish. She shut off the water reluctantly, fixing the smile reserved for customers on her face and asked, "The usual?" He was the only customer with a "usual."

He nodded and she set to work right away, feeling his glare on her back as she hurried to make him his coffee. It was the easiest coffee to make, not requiring much, but it still seemed to take much too long.

After he had his cardboard covered cup and he'd sat at his usual table, Hinata was at a loss as to what to do. Everything was clean and there wasn't another customer in sight. There had never been a better time to confront him. And there had never been a time when she dreaded it more.

She walked slowly to the corner table. He took no notice until she had interrupted his thoughts with a hesitant clearing of her throat. He looked up at her, a subtle curiosity in his eyes. Hinata pointed to the chair, asking, "May I sit here?"

He took a long moment to answer, never refusing to drop his gaze. As if hypnotized, Hinata remained the same, until he offered a small nod and his eyes went back to the words on the paper. Neither said anything for a long time, until Hinata finally gathered enough to courage to comment,"Um… it's sunny outside." Sasuke didn't lift his gaze as he said, "It's summer." Feeling her face reddening, Hinata murmured, "Yes… it is. Probably why w-we have less c-customers. The heat and all…"

He still didn't look up.

Hoping he was listening to her, she said, "Don't you ever get… tired… of coming to the same place to get the same coffee? Doesn't it… I mean… doesn't it ever get old? And during summer too…"

Sasuke finally spared her a glance, saying, "No. It's good all the time. It never gets old."

Tired of beating around the bush, Hinata said, "Um… why do you come here… everyday?"

He seemed to think about it before answering slowly, "I'm… not really sure."

Disappointed in his answer, Hinata pressed him for an answer that would make more sense, one that would allow her to understand why he kept coming back every day.

"B-but," oh how she hated that stutter, "you must know. There must be a reason… a reason you continue to come to this particular coffee shop. Help me understand please…" There was a hint of frustration near the end of her statement, and she hadn't noticed how her eyebrows had furrowed.

Sasuke looked at her for what seemed to be an eternity before finally answering, as if not sure if he meant what he was saying, "Because I like you?"

It took a moment for Hinata to absorb the statement. His words echoed in her head repetitively, creating a cacophony like so many twittering birds, like so many pots and pans crashing against each other.

_Because I like you._

"Because I like you," he repeated, more quietly this time. He began to stand up, closing his book with exaggerated care, drinking his nearly full coffee in three large gulps. He walked away as if nothing had happened, as if Hinata was not still sitting glued to the chair in shock.

_Ring_

And he was gone.

He returned a few days after that and the pattern from before proceeded as if he had never said anything. Hinata averted her eyes and only peeked at him when she thought he wasn't looking. She had a few mishaps, absorbed as she was, and even got a very harsh scolding from Ino. Her boss had remained oblivious and blamed Hinata's mistakes on hormones, or perhaps trouble at home. Never did she suspect that it all had to do with the brooding young man in the corner.

She found out one evening on a Saturday not very different from any other Saturdays. It was nearing closing time and the only client remaining was Sasuke, for once not reading a book. This time he was looking out the windows, yet his gaze seemed to go past the speeding cars and past the hard metal tables of the patio. He had been most removed that day, and had ignored Ino's yelled, "Another one Sasuke?" He had drank one coffee that entire day.

Hinata was wiping down the tables, eager for the day to be finished. She could then go home, relax, and forget about Sasuke completely, if only for a few hours. As she approached his table, he pushed away his books so she could clean off his table too. She did so, not caring to do it right.

Sasuke stared at her, his mouth turned down in a frown. He seemed to be thinking very hard. Finally, so quietly she couldn't be sure she had heard him right, he said, "Make me another one. And… make yourself one too, then come join me."

Hinata did as he said, feeling Ino's shocked stare on her back as she complied.

Hinata had a feeling she hadn't seen the last of the evening coffees. She was right.

- - -

I only wanted a coffee, thought a peeved Sasuke as he sat down heavily in a chair.

All around him was the hustle and bustle of a very busy coffee-shop on a Friday evening. Young romantic couples sat at the tiny round tables, leaning towards each other, their steamy coffee cups dangerously close to falling, but none of them paid attention, so wrapped up in their own little worlds as they were.

Just a coffee, black, without the bells and whistles. No cream, no sugar. It's not really coffee if it has cream and sugar. He folded his arms across his zipped up jacket.

Maybe a simple croissant. Maybe look at the news of the day, however bad it may be, the newspapers are free here. Just to shake myself of that laziness that hits me on Saturday mornings.

He looked around the room. Every table was full, and the line looked even longer than when he had first arrived. Past the windows, past the stylish blown glass lamps hanging from the ceiling, cars rushed by, the speed limit seeming to only be a suggestion.

Saturday mornings are much better, thought Sasuke as he remembered a Saturday morning at a time that seemed long ago in this same place. He took a sip of coffee. It was black, no bells and whistles, no cream, no sugar. It wasn't coffee if it had cream and sugar.

And Saturday evenings are even better than Saturday mornings…

A girl with her long hair pulled back into a ponytail and the whitest of eyes made her way between the cramped tables, untying her apron as she went. Sasuke kept his eyes on her as he stood up and handed her a jacket. She handed him another cup, saying as she did so, "I got you another coffee. But I accidentally put in some cream and sugar. Sorry."

How could she have forgotten he didn't like his coffee sweet! She had made it every day for almost two years now. She scolded herself inside her head.

"It's not really coffee if it has cream and sugar, you know," he commented quietly. "And I don't want to be here anymore. I hate Friday nights at this place."

Hinata smiled lightly as she said, "Yes, it's very crazy on Friday evenings. But you don't really mind Saturday evenings, do you?"

Sasuke smirked. "Saturday evenings are my favorite."

He let her lead him out of the shop, downing his coffee as he went. He then took a sip of his new cup.

He'd learned to like coffee with cream and sugar. Just a little bit of sweetness didn't hurt. In fact, it was quickly becoming his favorite kind of coffee.

* * *

A/N: I believe this one is longer than the previous three combined - laughs -. Oh Miss Rahlia, you kill me, you really, really do.

A little bit of Hinata's sweetness went a long way, ne? Just goes to show what happens when one lets a little bit of that sugar enter their heart - grin -


	6. Madhouse

Madhouse

Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose, a displeased frown on his handsome face.

How had he come to land himself in this situation? Oh, right. Now he remembered.

An annoying voice shouted out, "Are you constipated or do you always look like that, Sasuke?"

His scowl deepened as a chorus of laughter rung all around him, amused by his obvious discomfort.

The laughter of a whole bunch of people he didn't really care too much about.

Well, except for one.

Hinata sat next to him at the dinner table, her soft tinkling laugh a part of the din.

"Hanabi, be nice," Hinata reprimanded, though a smile could still be heard in her voice.

"Hmph," snorted Hanabi. "I am nice… when people are nice in return. But your boyfriend isn't nice at all, so I see no reason to be nice to him either." She then gave Neji a sneaky high-five beneath the table.

Hyuuga Hiashi pretended not to notice, a small grin upon his face.

Finally, after having composed his face into a slightly more dignified smirk, he turned toward the Uchiha. "So… Sasuke. What are you up to these days?" His forced nonchalance was clear in every one of his movements, and in the amused smirk he wore like a proud sergeant's war medal.

Sasuke shrugged, glaring at the clan leader as if trying to read his thoughts. Surely the man's forced indifference meant he was trying to pry some information out of him? So Hyuuga Hiashi knew interrogation techniques after all…

"Nothing much. Tsunade still doesn't trust me enough to give me any missions outside the village, so I'm mostly running errands for her," Sasuke said.

Hiashi nodded. "Yes. Yes, if I were Hokage-_sama_ I wouldn't trust you with anything outside the village either." He chuckled once. "I wouldn't even trust you to run errands inside the village walls. Just goes to show how forgiving the fifth is."

Everyone excluding Hinata and Sasuke chuckled at this, their laughter sounding less like light-hearted banter and more like the cackling of wild animals excited over a particularly weak piece of prey.

But the prey wasn't weak. In fact, it could very well take down the entire pack of hyenas by itself.

Sasuke smirked, anticipating their response to his comeback.

"Hmm… I guess you could call it forgiveness. But the way you say it makes it seem as if you think the Hokage is an idiot, as if you believe that the leader of the village and one of the legendary sannin could be so foolish as to trust me. You don't seriously believe that, do you, Hyuuga? I'll have to tell the Hokage you don't think too highly of her."

The laughter stopped immediately. Hiashi's grin slid off his face like water.

So the boy wouldn't be taken down easy. Fine, he could continue for as long as necessary.

"No, boy. The Hokage is wise and knows exactly what she is doing. And you give me the respect I deserve, or you'll never set foot in this house again," he threatened, his voice turning deadly enough to send chills through everyone at the table.

Except for Sasuke, who merely shrugged, smirk still firmly in place.

Beside him, Hinata was frowning in disapproval. This dinner wasn't going like she'd planned.

She had wanted a nice, quiet dinner, with her team, family, and (it gave her a secret pleasure just to think the word) boyfriend.

Instead, it was a complete disaster.

Why couldn't her father lay off of him? Why must he act as if Sasuke was an enemy ninja that needed to be cross-examined? And did Hanabi and Neji really need to grin so evilly whenever Sasuke looked uncomfortable?

At least everyone's enjoying the food, thought Hinata, unable to be a complete pessimist.

The food was delicious. If there was any reason that Sasuke had come to the dinner in the first place, it was because he knew what a good cook Hinata was. Even Akamaru had wolfed down a healthy serving of the meal.

After forced casualness, snide remarks, and questions drowning within hidden meaning, the tense dinner was finally over.

Hell must be a nice place, thought Sasuke as he stood up stiffly from his seat, not realizing that he'd been sitting nearly immobile through the meal.

This must be the most difficult mission of my life…

Worse still, it wasn't over yet.

There was a new torture lined up for him. Hinata dragged him by the arm towards the living room for some after dinner tea.

Oh joy, thought Sasuke as Hinata sat him down between her teammates.

"I'll be right back," said Hinata and went off to make the tea.

The atmosphere became edgy once again.

Hiashi was seemingly absorbed in some scroll about the history of the Hyuuga clan, though his eyes would narrow at the Uchiha when he thought he wasn't looking.

Neji glared at Sasuke as if hoping his gaze would burn a hole in the village traitor, and Hanabi followed his lead.

Kiba drummed his fingers on the table in front of him as Akamaru proceeded to do some very strange things to Sasuke's outstretched leg.

"Get off me," growled Sasuke at the canine currently bouncing on his leg.

Kiba barked a laugh. "Let him, he'll be finished in a minute. It is mating season, you know…"

Hanabi and Neji snickered at the look of disgust on Sasuke's face. They began to laugh harder when his eyes widened and he stood up quite suddenly, scratching beneath the collar of his white shirt.

There was a strange prickling on his skin, like so much stinging fire, or perhaps like the tiny claws of miniature insects digging into his epidermis, over and over again.

And he huffed as he realized that miniature insects was probably a very likely reason his skin was prickling this way.

Shino was watching him intently, though still managing to look detached.

"I seem to have let some stinging fire claws out. Hmm…" said the introverted ninja.

As soon as his sentence was finished, a faint buzzing was heard and the irritation stopped.

And Sasuke was stomping out the door.

---

That had been the first of the Hyuuga manor dinners.

Many more followed, Hinata being as optimistic as she was, forcing the most important people of her life to eat together at one table.

Except she failed. She failed 22 times until she finally realized that Sasuke and her family and teammates could not coexist happily at one dinner table.

Mating season had lasted a long time, and Akamaru had found that Sasuke's leg was a very suitable mate.

Shino seemed to be unable to control his insects when he was in the Hyuuga household. How very strange that it only seemed to happen at the rare dinners when Sasuke was present.

Hanabi had a very imaginative mind and never failed to find some insult or other for the Uchiha heir.

Neji had an uncanny knack for glaring and tossing sarcastic comments to counter Sasuke's snide remarks.

And Hiashi remained Hiashi. Over-protectiveness, threats to kick Sasuke out of the house, and long probing stares reigned supreme with the clan leader, and he failed miserably at trying to act casual about the whole affair.

A complete disaster, Hinata had once called it.

A madhouse, Sasuke had told her one time. You live in a madhouse, he had said.

Madhouse. It was an apt description.

---

_Knock, Knock, Knock_

Light streamed in through the window, hitting Sasuke right in the eyes.

Who the hell could be knocking this early in the morning, he wondered.

Irritated, he covered himself with his blanket.

Maybe if I ignore it, they'll go away, he thought sleepily.

Go away, go away, go away…

_Knock, knock, knock_

Damn.

He rolled out of bed, mumbling something about somebody's mother under his breath.

How he hated being woken up so early in the mornings.

He made his way slowly to his door, not even bothering to throw a shirt on, his eyes closed even as he maneuvered through his messy living room.

Fingers closed tightly around the doorknob, and black eyes squinted through the light coming through the door, the body in the doorway but a silhouette in the glow of the sun.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he recognized the person in the doorway.

Slender, with long dark hair and eyes like clouds.

Hinata.

It was Hinata, a suitcase in tow, with Kiba and Shino carrying a couple of boxes each.

She smiled at him, nervous for the first time in a long time.

"Um… Sasuke? C-can I move in with y-you?"

He didn't miss how her voice broke, or how her eyes looked down, or how she blushed.

And when he didn't answer, she stuttered some more.

"Of c-course, if y-you d-don't want t-to… I'll just leave," she said quietly and began to turn on her heel to leave.

"No," said Sasuke. "Of course you can."

He stepped aside to allow her in, with her suitcase and boxes of items.

What he didn't expect was her relieved embrace.

"Thank you, thank you!"

In went the suitcase, followed by the rest of Team 8.

And he returned her embrace, even as he began to feel an itch around his neck and a bouncing on his leg.

Madhouse. It was an apt description for the Hyuuga manor.

Madhouse. It was now an apt description for the Uchiha aparment.

And he knew he wouldn't have it any other way.


	7. Hallucinations

Light streamed in at an angle through a slit in the curtains, illuminating the room just a little. There was a twittering of birds somewhere, the chirping and tweeting sounding very far away.

On the bed was a lump of bed covers and pillows, and hidden beneath the mountain of sheets was a body, eyes still closed in the time between sleeping and awaking. He knew it was time to wake up, but refused to. He remained there, pretending slumber, hoping that the heat that had been at his side would return soon.

Instead, he heard the sound of water running somewhere in the bathroom and a song being hummed. Soon after, the water shut off.

Suddenly, something pounced at his side and crawled down beneath the covers with him. He groaned as this hyper something tried to get him to open his eyes. "Mm," he murmured as it pulled at his arm. " 'M still sleeping…" A soft laugh rang at his side as the weight on the other half of the bed was removed.

Curtains opened and light poured into the room and hit his eyelids. Yet he continued to fight it.

He flipped over face down and pressed a pillow down on his head.

And was shaken once again.

"Sasuke," Hinata said with a laugh. "Wake up, it's getting late. Don't you want breakfast?"

Now he was in a real dilemma. He did want breakfast, he really did. But he also liked to sleep. How could she be up so early in the morning and have so much energy?

It was annoying.

But he decided to get up anyway, his need for food winning over his want for sleep.

"What's for breakfast," he asked dully.

"Hmm I don't know. What would you like?" she asked.

"Anything," he said with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah," was her response. He always said that, but she knew that he was never satisfied with just "anything." She had learned to live with his pickiness over time.

As she went to prepare breakfast, he set about getting ready for the day. It was his day off, and Hinata would probably want to go somewhere.

Upon entering the kitchen he found a steaming cup of tea on the table. Hinata was serving herself a cup, her back to him as he sat down.

Sasuke watched her as she did,wondering how on earth he had managed to get so lucky. He looked down quickly as she turned around. It wouldn't do for her to see him watching her. Very un-Sasuke-like.

Still, she smiled to herself, amused because she knew he had been watching her. She only let him think she didn't know.

"Why are you blushing," Sasuke asked her as she sat down across from him.

"No reason," she answered, though she continued to smile.

It was disconcerting to him, to not know what she was thinking. He only hoped she hadn't caught him watching her. It was still hard for him to show affection, even after living with her for so long.

He enjoyed living with her. He enjoyed being with her, knowing that she only belonged to him. That didn't mean that he would change himself completely, act like the idiots who became total pushovers.

That was stupid.

But he had changed, that much was certain. He now knew what it meant to actually love someone, to actually care for someone. The meaning of jealousy had become quite clear the times he had been dragged along to buy groceries and had seen other men look her up and down like a piece of meat.

Over protectiveness made a lot of sense. When someone had something this precious, you had to protect it with your life.

His mind was lost inside the ocean of thoughts revolving around the person sitting across from him that he hadn't even noticed that the bell rang. He groaned, "I'll get it."

An irked Sasuke opened the door to find Naruto grinning at him.

"Hey Sasuke! Just stopped by to say hello!"

He allowed himself in, although Sasuke had been on the point of kicking him out.

_Idiot…_

"If you're just here to say hello, why did you come in," asked Sasuke, irritated that his breakfast had been disturbed.

Naruto shrugged, looking down at the floor uncomfortably. "Hmm… just wanted to check up on you… you know, cause you're my friend."

"I'm touched," said Sasuke sarcastically.

Hinata then walked into the room. "Hello Naruto-kun!" she greeted her former crush.

Naruto continued to stare down at the floor.

Sasuke shoved him. "She said hello, aren't you going to at least say Good Morning?"

"To who?"

"Idiot, who else? Hinata, you retard."

Realization hit Naruto like a ton of bricks. "Oh right! Uh… hey… Hinata-chan…" he murmured awkwardly.

_Why's he acting so strange?_

"Naruto, would you like some tea," asked Hinata.

Naruto ignored her and asked Sasuke, "Hey! Do you got anything to eat? I'm starved!"

Sasuke frowned at him. "She asked you if you want some tea. Why are you ignoring her?"

Naruto again looked troubled. "Uh… sorry. Yeah, I guess I'd like some tea," he muttered.

I always knew he was crazy thought Sasuke with a shake of his head.

He followed Hinata to the kitchen, Naruto trailing behind her. Sasuke handed him his own cup, seeing as how he hadn't even managed to drink out of it.

"Hinata, serve me another one please." She nodded and went to fetch another cup.

Naruto looked at him strangely, almost pityingly. He then looked down at his cup, and gazed down at that as if it too was something pathetic.

"What? Something wrong with the tea," asked Sasuke, beginning to get angry with his best friend. What was his problem?

Naruto shook his head. "No… uh, it's just too hot."

An awkward silence filled the room as Sasuke wondered if Naruto was mentally incompetent.

Unable to stand it any longer, Naruto stood up, saying, "Uh… I gotta go meet with the Hokage. See you later Sasuke… Hinata." He had added Hinata as an afterthought.

He left Sasuke talking to Hinata about how something must be wrong with Naruto to refuse her tea. It was the best tasting tea in Konoha, after all.

Outside stood the Hokage, surveying the entire scene through the window. It was a sad scene, she never thought Uchiha Sasuke, the genius ninja, would ever get in this state.

Footsteps could be heard approaching as Naruto walked to her, trying to wipe away the tears he'd been holding back when he'd been inside the house.

"How's he doing," asked Tsunade, her eyes still on Sasuke conversing inside the room.

Naruto's voice was rasping as he answered, "He's still having hallucinations, Hokage-sama. He thinks she's right there in front of him, serving him tea."

"What's in the cups?" asked Tsunade as Sasuke continued to talk to thin air.

"Nothing. He's drinking from empty cups."

"Hmm…" she murmured as Sasuke leaned forward to plant a kiss on a person that wasn't there. That no longer existed.

"Are you sure there's no way to fix his mind? To make him see that she's dead? It hurts to see him like this."

Tsunade shook her head sadly. "The pain of seeing her get killed was so strong that his mind was forced to revert into something that could stand the pain. Somewhere inside himself, he knows Itachi killed her. But Sasuke can never be the same. He'll wake up every day, thinking she's there with him. Because his entire being refuses to live without her. Even if it's only a hallucination."

Her eyes slid to the side. Tears were now rolling down Naruto's cheeks quite freely.

"But he's happy this way?" he asked.

Tsunade nodded. "Yes, he's happy. Living in a fantasy world, with her by his side."

Naruto clenched his teeth, his fists tightening reflexively.

"Then I guess… there's nothing we can do…" he muttered, defeated.

Inside, Sasuke smirked at the empty space in front of him.


	8. Disneyland

**A/N**: There's a number of reasons why this chapter came into existense.

First, I needed something to fix the sadness that stabbed my heart after writing Hallucinations. I'm sure I'm not the only one that needed it XD

Second, my birthday is coming up, and we were planning on driving over to Disneyland in Anaheim (heck yes, best place EVAR!) but it turns out we're too poor to do so (no worries, I'm getting a Wii instead :D). So, I began to wonder what Sasuke and Hinata would do at the the happiest place on Earth. Thus, this baby was born!

* * *

There was a pungent sweetness in the air, emanating from everywhere; the ice cream dripping down chins, the chocolates melting in warm hands, the giant rainbow lollipops staining tongues into brilliant hues. 

But it came from elsewhere too, from places that were a little bit harder to find. Hinata guessed it was the aura of the place. Here, adults could become children again, and the youthful innocence left its own lingering scent. It was a pleasant aroma, almost floral, and light in her nose.

To the man beside her, however, it invaded his nostrils and refused to leave. Sasuke didn't easily recognize the scent of happiness. Instead, he speculated that it came from some nearby kitchen, where pots of a putrid, sweet something simmered slowly over fire. Disgusting. How could people be so carefree?

"It smells sweet," he said as he wrinkled his nose. They passed a bunch of nuns leading a group of school children. Screams of delight could be heard in the distance as she nodded her head. "Yes. It's just something about this place," Hinata said with a smile as the Mad Hatter skipped past with parents and obsessed children trailing after him.

"Hmm," was his grunt of a response. "Where exactly are we going," Sasuke asked, one eyebrow raised at the song currently playing over the speaker system. It was something familiar, images of mermaids and underwater castles popped into his head at the sounds.

Hinata opened her map and stuck her face in it. "Well," she said as she nearly crashed into a little old woman wrapped in a sari. Sasuke nudged her to the left and she walked around the woman, her face still hidden behind the shiny, multicolored map.

"It says here that it's in Fantasyland," she murmured as she came dangerously close to tripping over a stroller. Noticing this, Sasuke practically flew to push the cart out of the way, tipping the empty baby carriage over in the process. And still, Hinata only continued walking and talking.

"We're in Main Street, so we have to go straight, through the castle and all the way to the back," she mumbled. And she still continued walking, absorbed in the colorful drawings on the map. So absorbed was she that the tree a meter in front of her escaped her notice. But not Sasuke's. He grabbed her quickly, almost forcefully, before she was tasting tree bark. Keeping Hinata safe was harder than he'd thought.

Finally, she took her eyes off the map. Her eyebrows furrowed as she scolded him. "I know you don't want to be here, but that's no reason to push me. Today's a special day, just enjoy yourself. I didn't think you were so upset about the whole thing." With that, she pocketed the map and strolled away.

Sasuke stood in the middle of Main Street, staring after her. He had just saved her from potential injury, and this was how he got repaid?

And though he said he didn't want to be here, if he was honest with himself, he really was enjoying himself. The place was bright, the air was clean, Walt Disney had truly outdone himself. Seriously, how many towns had a horse drawn buggy riding around?

It was every child's dream, to visit the happiest place on Earth. And here he was, _at_ the happiest place on Earth with the person that made him the happiest. And that person was now walking away from him, map flapping from her back pocket, bag swinging at her side as she clicked her camera left and right.

He hurried to catch up to her. She turned and smiled, all disappointment gone. "Oh, isn't it just so nice here? Look!" she pointed suddenly to a little pathway near the Castle. "There's Snow White!" Sasuke looked over to where she pointed at, completely disinterested. He found Disney princesses to be kind of annoying. Why did they always enjoy cleaning so much? That was a bit strange. The again, Hinata also sang while she cleaned…

But before he found the answer for that question, Hinata had grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to the line for autographs and pictures. They were in line behind a small girl with pigtails. The little girl looked up at the smiling young woman and then at the seemingly gloomy young man. She then asked him,"Aren't you two a little old to be taking a picture with Snow White?"

Sasuke gazed down at her lazily, scowling. "And aren't you a little young to be a nasty human being? You should wait until you're at least my age to start being sadistic, don't you think?"

Hinata elbowed him in the gut, though the little girl hadn't even really heard him. Small attention spans were very common in young children. The little girl whipped her pigtailed head around and jumped up and down excitedly. She exclaimed, "We're next, we're next!"

Sasuke mumbled, "Stupid brat." Unfortunately for him, she had heard that. She stopped jumping and turned around slowly, a small frown upon her face. "That was not nice," she said. She then stomped on his foot.

But Sasuke only smirked at her, leaning over and saying, "I beat up criminals on a daily basis, little one. You can't hurt me." Satisfied when her eyes widened in surprise, he decided to go further than that. "And Snow White," he said with a slight turn of his head in the direction of his subject. "Yeah… she's not real. That's someone dressed up as Snow White."

Was it wrong to feel a kind of twisted satisfaction from watching the little girl's lip tremble? Eh, who really cared, he was going to hell anyway, might as well do it thoroughly.

"And your mommy… she was lying when she said there weren't really monsters hiding in the closet. They live there, waiting for the day when you come home from stomping on somebody's foot. So… have fun today, because it's your last day to live."

Sasuke smirked. The little girls lips trembled, her eyes visibly watery. After a staring contest between the two, she finally cracked. "MOMMY!" she screamed, sobs erupting from her in obnoxious gasps and boogers. "That man was mean to me!"

The little girl's mother only rolled her eyes and walked out of her place from the line. "I told you not to ruin today, baby girl! Come on, let's take you on some rides," said the woman. Obviously, it wasn't the first time this had happened.

Sasuke felt a tug on his shirt. "Why was that little girl crying," Hinata's concerned voice asked. He shrugged easily, as if not being the cause of the girl's distress. "No idea."

After taking pictures with Snow White, they went along their way through Fantasyland, Hinata's white eyes looking over everything with a childlike contentment. Eventually, even Sasuke had begun to smirk just a little bit more; it was almost passable as a smile. Almost, but not quite.

He hadn't paid much attention to where they were going. Instead he let Hinata lead the way, though he halted in front of the towering white mountain where screams could be heard. "Hey, Hinata," he said, his eyes traveling up the peak. "Wanna go on this one?"

Hinata looked at the ride. "Um," she said, trying to look casual. "Maybe… maybe later. First I want to go on it's a small world." She turned to keep walking towards her preferred ride.

"Why not now," asked Sasuke, sensing a button pushing situation. He continued to stand in front of the mountain, refusing to move until she gave him a reason.

"Well… um…" she struggled for words. He noticed she had begun her habit of poking her fingers together. "It's… got a huge line!" Her eyes lit up as she found a legitimate reason to skip on the Matterhorn Bobsleds.

"Actually," corrected Sasuke,"it says here it's only thirty minutes. I've heard the line can go up to two hours for this ride, so that's a pretty good time. Let's go on it now."

He began to walk in the direction of the line. Hinata stood farther away, looking at him with wide eyes, growing more uncomfortable by the second.

"You're not scared are you?" he asked, the corner of his mouth raised in amusement. Hinata shook her head quickly. "No, it's just that… um… I don't want to go on it yet!"

"Quit stalling and go on it with me," said Sasuke. Ignoring the tiny groan issuing from her direction, he continued to walk until he was at the back of the line.

Hinata followed him, dragging her feet as she did. She had wanted a nice, fun-filled day at Disneyland. Not a day where her heart beat fast from fear and nerves.

"Oh! Look!" she said suddenly as her eyes caught the sign at the entrance. "It says I must be that tall to ride. Guess I can't ride it now," she said happily as she attempted to skip away towards it's a small world.

"Wo there, where do you think you're going." She felt a tug on the back of her sweater.

"To it's a small world. I have to be that tall to ride," she said, pointing at the sign.

A low snicker and then, "That's to see if little kids are tall enough. You're tall enough." She was then thrust into the line in front of him with no way out.

Hinata sighed. This was not going as planned. She wanted to go on the slower, safer rides, rides where she knew that she wouldn't suffer from a heart attack in the middle of a sharp left swerve.

It didn't help that the line was going super fast. They were nearly at the front now. She hadn't even had time to listen to the voice sounding over the loudspeaker!

"Are you all right?" asked Sasuke's voice from behind her. "Y-yes," she stuttered.

"Don't worry, it's going to be fun. I'll be right there with you," he said as he rubbed a hand soothingly on her back.

She smiled weakly. And then a new thought popped into her head. "Has anyone ever died on this ride?"

The hand at her back stopped. "Hmm," Sasuke murmured. "I don't think so."

Hinata turned around. "You don't think so? You don't think so! I need to know!" She grabbed him by the collar and shook him.

Sasuke smirked down at her. "You're cute when you're hysterical," he said. He had never seen her like this before, it was amusing.

"Oh no, no, no," said Hinata, letting go of his shirt and covering her face with her hands. "This is wrong, I don't want to be here, I'm gonna die!"

A low chuckle rumbled behind her. "I'm not gonna let you die. It's gonna be great, just you watch."

Only a few more people in front of them. Hinata stood there, her heart beating at what felt like a hundred miles per second, hoping the line would stretch on forever and she'd never have to get on the bobsleds.

Unfortunately for her, the ride operator had just appeared at the front. "Is there a group of two that would like to sit together?" he asked, looking completely bored about the whole thing.

Sasuke raised his hand. "We're a group of two," he said. Hinata looked up at him with wide frightened eyes. Why are you doing this to me, she thought in her head.

"Come on up," said the ride operator. Before she knew it, Sasuke had taken her by the hand and towed her to the front of the line. He then sat her in his lap inside the bobsled and wrapped a thin belt around her waist. "See, wasn't that fast," he asked as the belt clicked into place.

"S-sasuke, I want t-to get out, n-now please," she stuttered. Sasuke shook his head. "No, we're riding this."

"But I don't want to!" she practically whimpered.

"But you're going to," Sasuke said simply.

Hinata began to push against the belt, her hands scratching in vain at the metal fastener.

"Let me out of here!" she screamed at the operator, her eyes filling up with tears.

Behind her, at the ride control box, the ride operator only yawned as he flicked the switch.

"Enjoy the ride," he said as their ride cart moved by slowly by him.

Inside the bobsled, Hinata was becoming more and more hysterical. She had begun to breathe unevenly and was mumbling incoherencies between each gulp of air. "I'm gonna die, Oh no, oh no, oh no, get me out of here, I'm gonna die," she muttered underneath her breath. Behind her, Sasuke only chuckled.

It only made her worse. "How can you laugh at a time like this," she asked, her voice growing higher and higher as her level of anxiety shot up.

Sasuke answered, "Because you're reacting badly. It's very entertaining."

Hinata huffed. "You're mean."

Sasuke only snickered.

Then, the bobsled began to ascend, so that the two people inside of it were tilted almost horizontally. This sent Hinata's heart racing still faster. She shut her eyes tight and clung to the sides of the bobsled, hoping she'd still be alive by the end of the ride.

For the smallest of seconds, the bobsled paused. She opened her eyes, hoping against hope that all her praying had saved her and they were experiencing technical difficulties.

But then, it started.

The speed of the ride was exhilarating, and also frightening. From the moment the bobsled began zooming and bumping along its rails, Hinata screamed like she'd never screamed before. Sasuke was surprised her lungs could hold so much air in them and her mouth could open that wide.

But as the ride progressed, after several sharp swerves and whiplash-inducing hairpin bends, Hinata's hands began to loosen their hold on the sides and her eyes slowly opened, though her screams still rumbled through the caverns of the man-made mountain.

This wasn't so bad! In fact, it was really fun! Her frightened screams were turned into screams of delight as they bumped along another turn, as they swerved near the edge and looked over all of Fantasyland, as they passed another bobsled headed in the opposite direction.

All of a sudden, quite unexpectedly, they rounded a turn swiftly, and Hinata let out the loudest, most terrified scream of them all. There, towering eight feet into the icy cavern ceiling, stood an ice-coated Yeti, roaring as much as his speaker box would allow. His eyes flashed a dangerous crimson, and Hinata leaned away as their bobsled neared the monster.

She laughed as they left the Yeti's cave, screaming into the rushing wind, "We made it past the Yeti!" Sasuke chuckled behind her.

Now with a huge grin on her face, Hinata laughed and wooed through the remainder of the ride. Before she had noticed, they had reached the fall at the end of the ride.

Without enough time to even squeak in fear, the bobsled fell quickly, making the tiniest of splashes. Hinata breathed a sigh of relief, and then laughed as the bobsled came to a halt.

"That wasn't bad at all," she said with smile as Sasuke unfastened the belt.

"Hmm, it could have been faster. And that drop could have been larger. And that Yeti could have been more realistic," said Sasuke, though he had enjoyed the ride, he wouldn't be Sasuke if he didn't criticize.

They stepped out of the bobsled and Hinata skipped out, grinning as much as her mouth could allow.

"I want to ride that one again," she said when Sasuke had caught up to her.

"Hmm maybe we will. But we should ride all the other rides first."

Hinata nodded. "Yes. Now let's go to it's a small world!"

Sasuke frowned. "Fine. Stupid ride, all it has is a bunch of dolls."

Hinata laughed and said, "Hey, I rode the ride you wanted to ride, now it's my turn. You can choose the next one."

Sasuke shrugged. "That sounds ok…And we're riding Space Mountain after yours."

"What's that one like?" she asked.

Sasuke smirked the evilest of smirks. "It's like the Matterhorn. Except it's a lot faster, a lot darker, and I think a few people have died on it. Must be some ride." He began to walk away towards it's a small world.

Hinata stood there, frozen, all traces of excitement gone. Sasuke looked over his shoulder at her. "Coming, Hinata?"

She smiled weakly and said, "Yes, I'm coming."

Oh well, she thought in her head as she walked by his side towards the it's a small world castle. I'll worry about that later.

* * *

**A/N**: (idly sucks on rainbow lollipop) Mmm, how was that? I tried to give an accurate description of the place, so even people that had never been there could picture it somewhat. 

Haha Sasuke, you need to lighten up. Just cause the entire world's after you doesn't mean little pigtailed girls are trying to ruin your life. Twas an honest question, dear genius police man, you shouldn't make her feel bad for being curious. Kids will be kids!

Hope you enjoyed, me luffs to know what you think! (continues sucking on rainbow lollipop)


	9. Wedding Plans

_Wedding Plans_

It was one of those days.

The kind of day where you didn't sleep a wink during the night and when you finally did fall asleep, you find you've overslept.

The kind of day where you had risen from that uncomfortable sleep only because the stench of ammonia managed to enter your nostrils in your sleeping state and was better at waking you up than the buzzer on the alarm clock.

The kind of day where you found that the stench of ammonia was emanating from the corner of the tiled bathroom, where your new kitten had peed, having not been able to find its way to the litter box.

Yes, that kind of day.

But that was just the beginning.

Her hair had been sticking up at strange angles, her skirt and matching jacket had managed to get splattered with toothpaste, and she had still been sliding her left foot into that heel that seemed much too small when her car sputtered and died.

Eventually, she managed to get the car up and running.

Not that it had done her any good.

She'd gotten trapped in traffic, in the middle of two bright yellow taxi cabs, and had nearly ran over a little old woman while turning sharply at a corner.

Then, after finally finding a parking spot, she had stepped out ankle deep into a puddle.

She had nearly fallen through the door of Haruno's Matrimonies, and almost didn't hear the secretary at the front desk. "Your first appointment is in meeting room three," had said the woman with the round buns atop her brown head.

"Thanks Tenten!" she had managed to say as she flew past the desk and towards meeting room three.

Inside, she had found a very odd couple. The man was a skinny fellow, with light hair medium length hair that lay flat against his head. Hinata vaguely noticed how sharp his teeth had been, very shark like.

The woman beside him had worn a very short mini-skirt and had a very unusual haircut. It was red and flat on one side and layered on the other. Her eyes looked bored behind her black glasses.

For the first appointment of the day, it was terrible.

They bickered about everything, absolutely everything. The church, the floral arrangements, the napkins, the place cards, even the bathroom tissue for the reception was an issue! Seriously, who really cared whether it was two-ply or that super strength stuff that cost a whole lot more? Either way, it looked like after the wedding, the marriage couldn't last.

After enduring two hours of two-ply versus four-ply debate, Hinata was slumped over her desk, wondering how on earth she had managed to become a wedding planner.

She had never been overly obsessed with weddings. She saw them how a fortune teller saw things in her crystal ball; vague and foggy, too far in the future to be worried about in the present.

And after working at Haruno's Matrimonies for quite a while, Hinata realized that weddings were nothing but a big joke.

People didn't end up married forever. Love didn't last for all eternity. There was no such thing as "till death do us part."

It was all a show, because nothing could last forever. Why, most couples that came in here, all lovey dovey while planning their perfect wedding, were split at the year mark.

Weddings were not for her.

She only planned them for those less intelligent than she.

The next two hours were devoted to a much different couple than the first.

The man had bright orange hair that stuck up all over the place, and piercings lined his nose and stuck out from the bottom of his lip. Hinata had flinched upon first seeing him; was it possible for someone to pierce their entire ear cartilage?

And the woman was absolutely beautiful.

She wore her bluish hair in an updo with a single white flower. She had half lidded eyes that gave her a bored expression, and a single piercing on her bottom lip.

Working with them had been easier than the first couple… and also much, much harder.

They had entered and floated towards the chairs, and once seated, seemed to turn into statues.

When asked what kind of paper they wanted for the invitations, the woman produced from somewhere in her long black sleeve a thin black paper with a red cloud painted upon it.

"Are you sure about this," Hinata had asked. It seemed a strange choice for marriage invitations.

The man had given a tiny nod.

They were possibly the strangest clients she had ever worked with.

All the paper things, whether it be napkins or placecards, toilet paper or invitations, they wanted the black paper with the red cloud to be on all of them.

For the wedding dress, she had chosen black with red clouds.

"It seems a bit unorthodox, your dress choice. Are you sure that's the one you want," Hinata had asked, puzzled as to why anyone would want such a dark dress for a wedding.

She received another minuscule nod for an answer.

After an hour of black paper with red clouds, Hinata's pupils were seeing everything in black and crimson.

Feeling the beginnings of a headache in her right temple, she informed Tenten that she'd be taking her lunch break early.

There was only so much wedding planning that a wedding planner could stand, after all.

After a quick lunch of salad and iced tea, she was back with clients again.

This couple seemed much more normal, Hinata had noted with relief.

It was a guy with a ponytail, looking completely disinterested and half asleep. His fiancée was much more awake, with bright blue eyes and an odd hairdo of four blonde ponytails on her head.

She had chosen a simple off-white dress, the invitations were to be the color of beach sand, and the placecards would be small purple fans.

She hadn't even bothered to choose any kind of toilet paper.

She also hadn't bothered to consult her sleeping soon-to-be husband.

In the end, it had been the easiest and most normal meeting of the day, lasting only a half hour.

Hinata loved that kind of client. The kind who came in knowing what they wanted, didn't argue about things too much, and didn't truly care what kind of tissue their guests would be wiping their bottoms with. It seemed an unnecessary luxury.

And despite this comfortable meeting, her head was still throbbing. She chose to ignore it and hope it would go away.

Unfortunately for her, the last meeting of the day was with a returning client.

As she rested her head on the cool wood of her desk, Hinata's mind dimly registered the sound of stiletto heels clipping on the tiled floor. The sounds started far away and gradually sounded closer and closer, until finally, the door clicked open and in entered the clipping shoes.

_Click, click, click_

The sound stopped when the muffled sound of body on chair cushion was heard.

Hinata could feel her shoulder being shaken, but refused to look up.

Of all the days to schedule an appointment, she just had to come in when her wedding planner had a migraine.

Slowly, Hinata raised her pulsating head to look at the woman across from her.

A bright, one hour whitening grin shined brightly at her.

"Hinata! What are you doing lying on your desk like that! Did you forget we had a meeting today?" she asked in a loud voice that only made her head beat harder.

"No… I was just taking a little break," Hinata said as she forced herself to pay attention to the blonde woman across from her.

It was Ino, whose wedding was quickly approaching. The only reason that they were still having these kinds of meetings was because Ino changed her mind quite frequently, and her fiancée was never present at the meetings for her to consult.

It was a marriage doomed to failure, or so thought Hinata.

When a wedding was planned solely by the bride, when the groom was never present, when the bride was a hundred pound, loud, blonde woman with about as much common sense as a spatula, the marriage couldn't last.

Hinata sighed as Ino dived into a long story of something that had inspired her to tweak the wedding just a bit.

It wasn't that Hinata didn't like Ino. Truly, she did. It was just that her outward, hyper character contrasted with Hinata's quiet, inverted personality.

Also, dealing with her quickly changing mind was making her job as a wedding planner more difficult than it needed to be.

"… so that's why I decided to change the bridesmaid dresses from sky blue to lavender, despite what some people might say about it being a sickly color," Ino finished her circumlocution.

"Hmm," said Hinata as she pulled out the Uchiha-Yamanaka wedding portfolio from her giant bag.

As soon as the case was opened, Ino began noting other things she wanted to change.

She needed purple balloons to match the bridesmaid dresses.

She didn't want the new band Sound playing on the stage, she had decided a DJ was the better choice.

And the tables were the wrong shape. Couldn't she please, please, please have triangular tables?

The bathroom tissue (again with the bathroom tissue!) needed to be white.

Hinata had raised an eyebrow at this.

"Ino, the bathroom tissue _is_ white. It's kind of the default color," Hinata had informed her with a disbelieving expression on her face.

"Oh, I know," Ino had answered with a little laugh and a wave of her hand. "It's just that I don't like _that_ color white. I want a creamy white, less stark. The usual white reminds me of hospitals," she had added with a grimace.

"Ok… creamy white for the toilet paper," Hinata muttered as she changed it in her file.

"Oh! And I've decided we should go choose the cake now!" Ino said with the biggest smile Hinata had ever seen on anyone.

"Umm, Ino, don't you think the groom should make some of the decisions as well," Hinata asked pointedly.

Ino gave a much exaggerated sigh, dismissing it with another wave of her hand.

"He's always so busy working, you know how those executive businessmen are! He said I could do whatever I want, he doesn't care," Ino said.

And there it was, thought Hinata. Yes, a marriage doomed to failure.

If they started out a marriage with such little communication, it was sure to end soon.

Hinata didn't really care about whether a couple really loved one another or not.

What did bother her was when she spent so much time making a perfect wedding (like with brides like Ino, who couldn't make up their minds) and to find a few months later that it had all been a waste of her time because they had discovered they didn't want to spend the rest of their days together.

"Whatever, suit yourself," Hinata muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" asked Ino curiously.

"Um I s-said, Are you going to choose his suit yourself?" Hinata asked.

"Oh! Hmm I guess so, he doesn't have time for anything like that," answered Ino.

They looked at tuxedo fabric samples for another hour or so, and Hinata's headache only intensified.

Ino couldn't choose between two different swatches.

"This is just too hard," she exclaimed as her eyes moved back and forth between the two.

"It would be easier if your fiancée came and chose for himself," said Hinata earnestly.

"Yes, I suppose so. Too bad I can't get him to come with me."

Was it just her, or was there a sad undertone to the way Ino said that?

Either way, it was getting late and it was nearly closing time.

"Well," Hinata said as she stood. "It was great meeting with you again, Ino."

Yeah right…

"Oh, it was fun wasn't it? I hope I didn't give you a headache with all my back and forth," said Ino with a giggle.

Hinata grimaced.

She stood with a fake smile plastered on her face as Ino walked out the door. When the clicks of her heels could no longer be heard, she slouched down into her seat, the padded shoulders of her jackets moving up weirdly.

She gave out a groan, and loosely wondered where she could get a giant chocolate cake at this time of day. Chocolate cake fixed bad days.

It was just that kind of day.

At least now it was over.

She started to put away the Uchiha-Yamanaka wedding portfolio back into her bag, when all of a sudden her door slammed open.

In the doorway stood a tall man with dark hair and even darker eyes, wearing a blue suit and a red tie. He looked like he meant business.

Behind him stood Tenten who said, "I'm sorry, I told him Ino had just left, but he insisted on coming in here."

The man walked in and fell into a chair, and then looked at Hinata as if expecting her to sit down as well.

"Who are you?" asked Hinata in a mildly interested voice.

"Uchiha Sasuke. Ino's my fiancée," he said.

So the elusive engaged Uchiha finally makes his appearance, thought Hinata.

Thoughts of giant chocolate cakes and throbbing temples seemed to evaporate as Hinata signaled to Tenten that it was ok.

The door clicked shut, and silence followed.

Hinata sat down across from Sasuke, watching him warily.

Sasuke glared back.

How did someone so serious and quiet end up engaged to someone so free spirited as Ino?

He broke the silence.

"We were supposed to meet today to discuss more about the wedding," he stated rather than asked.

Hinata nodded.

"Well?" he asked, exasperated.

"Ino made many changes," said Hinata as she reopened the portfolio.

Sasuke just sat there, looking indifferent.

Something twitched inside Hinata, and she was suddenly very irritated.

"Mr. Uchiha, I hope you realize how difficult you have made my job," Hinata said, her words coming out unintentionally sharp. Probably also had something to do with Sasuke's bored expression.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? I've never even attended a single meeting, how could I possibly have made your job difficult?"

"That's just it. Your absence from these meetings has made it hard. Without the input of both the bride _and_ the groom, the wedding doesn't turn out right," Hinata said, looking at Sasuke with her eyebrows raised.

She really wanted a reaction from this guy. Maybe a frown, a furrowing of his brows, looking down in shame, anything! After all the meetings with Ino, and all the obstacles that had been in place, she deserved something from this man.

To her disconcertment, he merely shrugged.

"Whatever. This whole wedding planning business is nothing I want to deal with. I have other businesses that need my attention."

His voice was casual, as if it was completely logical for him not to take any interest whatsoever in his own wedding.

A vein at Hinata's temple twitched.

Maybe it was the fact that she had woken up late. Or maybe it was finding that her cat had urinated in her bathroom.

It could be the spatters of toothpaste that she hadn't managed to wipe off her skirt, or perhaps how the left side of her hair was still sticking up slightly more than the right side.

Maybe it was stepping ankle deep into a puddle. Maybe it was having to deal with engaged couples that were peculiar in every way imaginable, having to meet yet again with the blonde fiancée of some television producer.

Maybe it was the migraine.

If she looked deep inside herself, she'd see that she was disappointed because deep down, somewhere so deep down inside of herself that she didn't even know that area existed, Hinata had hoped that two people could get married and love each other and want to spend each and every day of their lives together.

And to find that people bickered, and spoke little to one another, or talked loudly yet were never heard… it squashed every dream that the hopeful part of her soul had.

Maybe it was a combination of all of those things.

Whatever the reason, Hinata did something she thought she could never do, or would never do.

She leaned over the desk, grabbed the man across from her by his tie, dragged him across the desk and yelled. Yelled really loud.

"What is your problem?! This is your own wedding we're discussing, your own future, you living with someone for the _rest of your life_! How can you just sit there, looking all bored and uncaring, when this is a life changing thing?! How can you leave your bossy, loud wife to handle the affairs?! Do you understand what a woman like that can do to a man like you? She'll run off with the money that you get from your important "businesses", spend it all on facelifts and boob jobs, cheat on you with the pool boy, and bankrupt you until you come running back in here with another woman, half your age and after nothing else but your money! Do you understand what you're doing to yourself? Well?! Do you?!"

By the time she was finished with her rant, Hinata fell back heavily into her chair, panting as hard as a marathon runner.

Sasuke had fallen back too, and his eyes were wide in shock. He was slack jawed and speechless as he watched Hinata watch him, her eyebrows pulled together in frustration.

A few more minutes of silence as Sasuke's shock wore off and embarrassment took the place of anger in Hinata.

She blushed now, and collected the papers from the top of the desk, stuffing them into the portfolio.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, her back towards him as she took her time stashing away the portfolio.

Silence…

"That was completely inappropriate of me, it'll never happen again. I'm sure Ino is a wonderful woman, I had no right to say the things I did," she muttered, feeling her heart beat unusually fast.

Behind her, the shock had worn off somewhat.

"No," said Sasuke with a clearing of his throat. He struggled to recover his cool tone.

"No, you're absolutely right. I'm done with this whole business. Ino… she doesn't love me, she only thinks she does. And I," he gave a humorless chuckle. "I don't love her. I don't love anyone."

He stood up then and Hinata turned around.

She opened her mouth to say how he shouldn't drop out because of something the wedding planner had said. Who really even cared what the wedding planner said anyway?!

He raised a hand to stop her, his dark eyes seeming to look straight through her head.

"Thank you. You've saved me from a wedding, a wife, a divorce, and bankruptcy. I hope never to have to visit you again."

With that, he strolled out of the room.

And Hinata was left standing there, mouth hanging open in surprise.

What had she just done?

The throb in her head reminded her.

Oh right… she'd just ruined a marriage.

Now on to the quest for the giant chocolate cake…


	10. Late

A/N: Inspiration's been hitting me at the most random moments. This came from a strange mixture of reality t.v., good Ricardo Arjona music, and actually reading the title of this collection XD. My mind works in strange ways...

Also, your reviews have made my heart swell with happiness, it's nice to hear that somebody likes what I write. Thank you! And without any more of this author's note nonsense, I present to you... Late.

* * *

_**Late**_

"Tomatoes or natto?"

Sasuke wrinkled his nose. "I hate natto."

She gave a laugh. "But it's full of vitamins and makes you stronger!"

She paid for two white boxes of the fermented soybeans.

Sasuke scowled. "So do tomatoes."

She laughed again. "You need to eat natto. I don't understand why you don't like it."

_I don't understand why you ask me to choose when you ignore me anyway…_

Her claw-like fingers grabbed his arm and dragged him around the marketplace.

The one day of the week he had off, and he had to spend it here, with _her_.

Sakura's pink head bobbed ahead of him. She was smiling at all the stand keepers, and kept pointing out different kinds of food to Sasuke.

Which he found very annoying and very ridiculous.

He didn't really care to know the medicinal properties of kumquats.

He didn't care that umeboshi was her favorite food, or how much she enjoyed spending the day with him, which she felt the need to mention every five minutes.

And no matter how much she smiled up at him, and tried to make conversation, it just wasn't easy for him to pretend he really liked her.

Against his better judgment, he had given her a chance.

He thought that after so many years, anything she could offer him would be completely out of this world, so splendid it would make him forget everything…

He was still waiting for that impressive display of all the things she had said she could offer him.

It would come, eventually. Because if it didn't… he wouldn't know what to do.

At that moment, however, he continued walking, letting her lead the way through the hordes of people.

"Come on, Sasuke, you're going too slow," she said.

She waited for him to catch up, looking impatient. When he finally caught up, she stuck her hand through the crook of his elbow and continued leading, only now she had a much stronger pull on him.

She continued to talk and point out random objects on the stands, occasionally pausing at certain stands that held items of interest.

Mostly, Sasuke just blocked out everything she said.

He didn't do it on purpose; it was just a habit he had acquired from the early days when they were a team.

None of it really made sense in his head, it just sounded like a faint buzzing melting into the surrounding hum of people.

But it was all just so easy. All he had to do was nod his head occasionally, murmur some obscure thing to show he was listening, and glance down at her infrequently.

Very easy, almost too easy. Possibly the easiest thing he had ever done.

They turned a corner of a stand to move into another throng of people.

At that moment, Sakura had been chatting nonstop about something.

Sasuke was idly formulating ways of disposing the natto in the grocery bag swinging at her side.

Surely, she wouldn't notice if he said some romantic thing, meanwhile dipping his hand into the bag, removing the natto and throwing it somewhere while she was lost in the fallacies he spoke?

Reflexively, his eyes caught the movement of purple. Purple fabric, purple hair, purple tinge to the white eyes.

Hinata…

Something inside of him seemed to be lifted as he saw her, perpetually blushing, with the smallest of smiles upon her lips.

Then his eyes caught the flash of orange and yellow. Bright, happy colors. Loud and annoying.

Naruto.

He had appeared from behind her pale self, grinning his bright smile and putting his arm around her.

The same something that had been lifted upon first catching sight of her fell like the heaviest of boulders.

She was still far off, but coming closer and closer by the second.

Now he really didn't hear anything. The world had turned completely silent and all the surrounding people were quiet. Where was this switch that could turn noise on and off?

And as he continued to glide along behind Sakura, who was still completely oblivious to his inattention, Hinata began to lift her eyes.

She felt his gaze watching her, and her eyes turned in his direction.

As if in slow motion, her mouth dropped in surprise and she nearly dropped the ice cream in her hands.

Next to her, Naruto continued his chatter. He couldn't have been a more perfect mirror of Sakura.

They continued to move forward, the entire world outside of their own little bubble of existence, in which their minds were frozen numb and unsure of what to do.

They continued to stare at one another, everything seeming to pass by in a blur of noiseless color. It was all so mundane, so unimportant.

In his dreamlike state, some part of Sasuke's mind realized how stupid the situation was. It was absurd.

The only reason he was putting himself through this torture, the only reason he wasn't the one beside her across the marketplace walkway was for fear of being alone, fear of the unknown, fear that it wouldn't, _couldn't_ work out.

Whilst this thought sliced through Sasuke's brain like a knife, Hinata too came to the same conclusion.

But now it was too late. They had both arrived too late.

Damn it! Damn the timing! I had found what I had dreamed of… why did I let it go?

How could he have known that this was what he needed?

It was true; you never know what you have until it's gone. He realized this as his world continued to move in slow motion, his black eyes holding her lavender tinged ones.

They continued gliding towards each other, both accompanied by people that mattered very little at the moment.

_They matter nothing…_

The only reason they were there was because of that same nightmarish fear.

The fear of being alone. It forced people to make safe decisions, decisions that they would be able to get up in the mornings and tolerate, day in and day out.

But not decisions that made them happy.

Him currently being tied to Sakura, for instance. Yes, this was all a consequence of the fear of being alone. Vulnerability was solved with being with someone, was it not?

But the someone he wanted to be with was much too good for him.

They were moving into proximity, less than twenty feet between them now…

And now all they wanted to do was escape. To never again have to see the shadows of one another, because it would only bring on another flashback, another memory, like winter brings back the same flu over and over again.

To run away would have been ideal. They both believed it. Pretend nothing had ever existed, that the other had never existed and impacted their lives like they did. To start believing that all of it was nothing but a dream or a terrible nightmare, going on within the depths of their minds but nowhere outside were reality made worse scars than dreams and nightmares did inside the subconscious.

And right beside the desire to run away was the longing to forget the decisions that had been made, the torture that they had subjected themselves to.

To run across those last twenty feet and embrace one another, to be trapped inside his arms and listen to him say, "Welcome."

But it was much too late. They had both arrived too late.

Now, they recognized their mistakes. But they recognized them much, much too late.

Perhaps in a later time, where they could see the cost of their actions, they would have made the right choices.

To hell with what everyone thought, to hell with their differences.

They could concentrate on the similarities and work on feelings alone.

Together, they could throw away their logical selves, the pieces that made sense and tried to make sane decisions.

Sane decisions didn't always make one happy.

How they both wanted to run those last twenty feet, crash into one another and never let go!

To forget about the consequences, for it all to be as easy as letting themselves be tortured in the presence of others, looking for a substitute for what they really needed.

To reach happiness with one another, without damaging other people which they also cared for.

But now, now it was too late.

Because now they were walking by each other, the closest they had been in months.

He turned to look at her as they passed by one another, and she did the same.

Both of their eyes were wide, screaming all the thoughts rushing around their heads, those thoughts one and the same.

And still, they said nothing.

They only passed each other, their necks turning as far as they could go as to keep looking.

Then, they turned round again.

It was too late for that… they had arrived at the conclusion too late.

She was gone.

The sound returned, and Sasuke was able to feel his own feet again, dragging themselves along uselessly behind the pink haired woman in front of him.

"… so I told her, no I think I'd prefer the cherry blossoms, because they go with my name, but she said it might be better if I went with something else. What do you think Sasuke? Sasuke?" Sakura said worriedly.

"I think I like lavender better," he murmured, his brain still processing what had just happened.

Behind his eyelids was burned a picture of a beautiful dark haired woman, gazing at him, unable to say a word.

His mind was racing with all the thoughts of what was wrong with this picture, and he really didn't have space to hold anything Sakura said.

_This is wrong… but it's too late…_

Somewhere, walking in the opposite direction, Hinata thought the same thing.

_Too late…_

A single tear rolled down her cheek.


	11. Life

**A/N: **If you've never played _The Game of Life, _you really should. I guarantee much fun. Very obviously, _The Game of Life_ was my inspiration for this one.

And while we're on the topic of games, let's play one now! It's called, _I Spy the Symbolism_!

Can you spy the symbolism? It's ok if you can't, I'm still trying to find it, and I'm the _writer _of this abomination.

* * *

**_Life_**

Fingers wrapped themselves loosely around the white plastic and turned.

The wheel spun quickly but lost speed and eventually… stopped.

"10."

A tiny blue plastic car moved forward ten spaces.

"It says to collect one thousand dollars from any player."

He smirked and she frowned.

There was a flutter of paper as the fake money exchanged hands.

"Thank you," he murmured.

"My turn," she said."

Hinata spun the spinner, willing it to land on a high number.

_10, 10, 10, 10, 10…_

1

She sighed and moved her white piece one space forward. Peering down to read it aloud, she said, "Crashed your car. Pay $500 dollars for repair."

This game did not like her.

Which was rather sad because it had been she who had wanted to buy the game in the first place.

She remembered it like it was yesterday… probably because it _had_ been yesterday when she bought it.

They had been shopping at the store for everyday necessities when they had passed by the toy aisles. Hinata had been walking a step behind Sasuke, sneaking peeks into the aisles. Sasuke mostly just pushed the cart full of items, looking bored as usual and trying to finish the shopping as soon as possible. He didn't understand the joy of shopping.

Then, before he knew it, he sensed her light steps had stopped somewhere behind him. A glance over his shoulder showed he was correct.

Standing behind him, look completely hypnotized as she gazed almost unseeingly into one of the aisles stood Hinata.

"Something wrong," he asked.

She ignored him and walked straight in.

Confused, he followed after her.

"What are you looking at," he asked again, mildly curious as to why she had stopped responding.

"Board games. Can we get one?" she asked, finally coming back to reality, her eyes shining brightly.

Unable to refuse, he said, "Sure…" He didn't particularly understand why she wanted a board game (they seemed so childish to him) but he went along with it anyway.

Now was the first time they were playing it. And Hinata was losing. Badly.

She blamed Sasuke's innate skills in absolutely everything. He had claimed he had never played this game before (or any board game) and was only following the rules she herself had read aloud at the beginning of the game.

He would give a single amused chuckle when she pouted, claiming the spinner was cursed, and her white car was unlucky, and he had the whole game jinxed.

The game had progressed, with him growing increasingly richer and she gaining very little.

Sasuke had gotten the best payday and Hinata one of the lowest.

How is it that he keeps landing on the LIFE tile spaces, Hinata wondered, growing slightly frustrated. This wasn't as fun as she thought it would be.

On the other hand, Sasuke was having a blast. He now understood how people could like these things. And contrary to his previous thoughts, this game wasn't boring. It required strategy and cunning, intelligence and skills.

He smirked.

_Just like in real life… how very funny._

Eventually, the time came to purchase houses. Hinata managed to get lucky (or so she thought.) In her hands she held the cards for the mansion and the trailer.

With a smile on her face, she flashed her luck at Sasuke.

"Look! I got the mansion! Even you didn't get the mansion," she exclaimed gleefully.

_It's turning around for me! I can still win!_

Sasuke just raised his eyebrow at this. He had gotten a bungalow.

"Are you going to get the mansion," he asked her. Was it just him, or did she seem to be just a little competitive today?

"Yes, I like the mansion."

Reaching for the money, she began picking out the thin paper for the precise amount.

And slowly, ever so slowly, her face fell as the realization hit her.

She didn't have enough money.

There was a long moment of silence as she sat gazing at her paper money with a crease between her brows.

Sasuke just sat and stared at her.

_The board game is making her competitive. She really wants to win…_

A sigh later, she said in a small defeated voice, "I don't have enough money."

"You could borrow some," said Sasuke, gesturing at the money in the "bank."

"No thanks," she said. "I'll just take the trailer."

She was visibly upset, but refused to say anything about it.

_It's just a game…_

_I have to win!_

_Maybe I should let her win…_

_Come on, Hinata, you can beat him! He can't be so good at everything!_

"Your turn," she said, attempting to sound as if she wasn't plotting ways of winning.

He gave a nod and spun.

7

The little blue car moved 7 spaces.

- - - - - - -

"I…. I think you cheated…"

The corners of his mouth turned up.

"No, I didn't cheat."

"B-but you m-must have. Nobody is that good at LIFE." Uncomfortable with voicing her opinion, she relapsed into stuttering.

"You were right there. You never took your eyes off the board. Did you ever see me take extra LIFE tiles?"

"N-noooo but-"

"Did I ever go further any more spaces than I was supposed to?"

"No… but Sasuke-"

"Could I have stolen any money from the bank? It was right next to you."

"Well… th-that's not the point-"

Sasuke leaned back, smirking in satisfaction. He hadn't cheated and Hinata knew it.

So why was she still going on about it?

"Sorry but… I-I still th-think you cheated."

This touched a nerve.

"Why don't you believe me?" he asked. It was irritating that she didn't believe him.

"I-I don't kn-know," she murmured.

"No," he said roughly. "You must have a reason. Would I lie to you?"

"No…"

"Would I cheat?"

She remained silent at this.

"Hinata," he muttered. How annoying.

He stood up and walked away.

Hinata was taken aback by this, and also guilty. She had upset him. All over a stupid board game.

She hid her face in her hands and mumbled, "I'm so stupid."

Something came up from behind her and wrapped itself around her.

Hinata jumped about a foot in the air, trying to escape from her attacker's clutches.

Then she heard familiar shushing noises from the area of her ear.

"Calm down. And don't ever say that again."

She relaxed, now ashamed of herself. First she had messed up by accusing him of being a cheater, then she'd try to run away. Couldn't she do anything right?

And worse still, he was acting nice about it all. After she had been such a jerk.

"I'm s-sorry," she said, slumping like a rag doll in his hold.

"Don't apologize," he said quietly. "Just don't ever say that again."

"I won't ever call you a cheater again. I promise," she said, resigned.

A rumbling laugh behind her and then, "I didn't mean _that_, but you shouldn't ever call me cheater either. I meant don't call yourself stupid."

"Oh," she said. It seemed insubstantial, but she had no idea what else to say.

Sasuke flipped her around so she was facing him. He was smirking slightly, but it didn't quite touch his eyes.

"Don't ever call me a cheater. I would never cheat. Never," he said seriously.

Hinata couldn't understand why he'd suddenly turned so solemn.

_I guess he just really likes to play by the rules…_

"I won't ever call you a cheater. B-because you would never cheat. Never," she repeated in a tiny voice.

"Remember that," he said as he stood up.

"Now," he said as he extended his hand to help her up. "Play again?"


	12. Bar Talk

A/N: So, I'm a slow updater. Yes, I am. Takes me quite a while to come up with a good idea. It's very sad, actually.

Still, I have more fun writing that way, with no pressure. And it makes for better writing, in my opinion. Inspired by alcohol, created by Rahlia. Enjoy. But not too much, the cops might take you away for usage of a controlled substance.

**_Bar Talk_**

It was an evening like any other. The sun had just set, finally granting the nocturnal citizens of Konoha the right to be outdoors.

The families had retreated to their respective homes while the rowdier crowd came out to celebrate their nightly festivities.

Out came the rebellious teenagers, eager to cause mischief wherever it could be found.

Out came the hardworking bachelors, the crease in their brows begging to be smoothed with glasses full to the brim with hard liquor.

Out came the important businessmen, the ones usually distanced from the lower classes by their self-important attitudes and austere seeming business suits.

Once the sun went down, so did the barriers, the walls separating the arrogant and busy from the busy and young.

Once the sun went down, it didn't matter if you were the leader of a large clan or a security guard.

Once the sun went down, none of it mattered, because no matter what position you held, no matter how self-important you were, at the end of the day you were nothing more than a tired and thirsty man, practically running out the door to the nearest bar in town. It was the only solace in the wearisome day.

Nobody hated this fact more than Hyuuga Hiashi. He was the most self-important clan leader in Konoha and believed it was his right to be treated as such.

Nothing gave him more of a scowl than to be treated like some common serviceman. In the bars, everyone was treated the same, and goddammit, he deserved better, he wasn't the clan leader for nothing.

It was a difficult job, running an entire clan, and it was made even more difficult when he tried to sneak out every day after sundown from his clan office.

He was very sly about it too; he would claim it his nap time and his bedroom was not to be disturbed, under any circumstances.

Being the trustworthy clan leader that he was, nobody questioned it, nobody checked to see whether the head actually was napping.

They risked his wrath if they were caught. Best to keep on the safe side and not bother him.

He would enter his room and then don the outfit of a lowly Hyuuga clan member, the ones made to guard the doors.

He would then easily go right out the door he had entered through (having specifically requested no guards at his door during his nap, nobody saw this odd spectacle) and exit the manor with ease.

For safety reasons, and so his secret wouldn't get out, Hiashi would keep the outfit on even while at the bar. Yes, it offered security, but it was also a burden.

Had he shown up to the bar in his regular clan leader garb, he would be served first, eliminating the possibility of delay in returning to his bedroom before anyone suspected something was wrong.

Keeping on the guard suit was helpful, but made it so he was treated just like everyone else. Meaning that he would have to wait his turn for his alcohol, just like everyone else.

It was troublesome, but he would endure anything for just a shot of something strong. He wasn't allowed alcohol at home; his eldest was very strict about that.

She didn't want him having liver failure later.

So every day he would sneak off to the bar and await his turn for some sake.

The place was always crowded with warm bodies converging round the high counter of the bar, scrambling and shoving for drinks.

It wasn't unusual to witness a fight in the middle of the bar with the tables ending up looking like piles of splinters on the floor, and two round balls of fat and skin lying on top, drowning in a pool of their own vomit.

When the civilized Hiashi saw this, he would only grimace in their direction and turn away.

A clan leader must not jeer and laugh at the stupidity of the two idiots on the floor, but rather behave himself with the same dignity that all Hyuuga members possessed.

However, it surprised him how much of an effort he had to make to control himself of the impulses that he felt as the rest of the bar pointed and laughed, mocking the beaten men on the floor.

Hiashi couldn't recognize the animal instincts that he had so long repressed, being the cultured man that he was.

He generally tried to sit in the far corner of the bar, the one that seemed black from the distance, where the body sitting in the last swiveling barstool would disappear into the darkness.

From there, he would be able to observe his surroundings and hopefully spot danger; Hyuuga guards on break often visited this very same bar, and it was in his best interest to avoid them at all costs.

Hiashi would order the finest sake the bar had to offer (he still found it lacking, but couldn't complain because surely the bar owner would throw him out) and quietly reflect on his day while sipping on his bottle (so long as he was here, he might as break _all_ the rules, no fancy sake cup for him).

What he enjoyed most about the bar was that he could converse freely with the man in the seat beside him.

As the clan leader, nobody ever spoke to him like a regular human being, and he was pleasantly surprised at how much a change of outfit could do to loosen the already loose tongue of the bastard beside him (he called all men bastards inside his head, it gave him a sense of rebelliousness that none of his advisors could ever guess he had).

Today was no different. He had taken his preferred seat at the bar and was all set to go with his bottle in front of him.

Hiashi was looking straight ahead when he sensed a body raise itself onto the barstool and order in a low voice, "The best sake in the house."

So the man had some sort of culture. Only lowlifes ordered beer when there were better drinks offered. Hiashi liked him already.

He decided not to greet his drinking buddy of the day just yet. Instead, he continued to sip at his bottle nonchalantly, staring straight ahead.

His sensitive ears picked up the sounds of sipping from his right, and the faintest tinkle of glass on counter. It was mostly drowned out by the rest of the bar's noise.

A glance at the clock told him that his hour was nearly up. Best to strike a conversation with the stranger now, it would be the only fun he had all day.

He half turned himself to his right.

Next to him, sipping at his bottle of sake and looking at Hiashi from the corners of his eyes was Uchiha Sasuke, taller than Hiashi remembered him and with a much lazier look about him.

Honestly, as much as he said he hated the Uchiha kid, he didn't really know him, didn't really care about his clan's past (besides that it was somehow distantly related to the Hyuuga), or even truly know very much of his treachery to Konoha.

He didn't hate the guy, only said he did because it was his duty as Hyuuga leader. Hyuuga Hiashi honestly didn't care for Uchiha Sasuke any more than he gave a damn for the two men suffocating in their own vomit at the opposite end of the bar.

The man was a mystery, a mystery that bothered him slightly, because Hiashi didn't particularly enjoy mysteries. They made his job harder.

Eager for the enigma of the legendary Uchiha Sasuke to be solved, Hiashi said casually, "That's a fine drink you have there. A man who orders sake in a bar full of beer commands respect."

He meant every word he said. He waited to see what the Uchiha's reaction would be.

Sasuke merely peered at the clan head, wondering why on earth a Hyuuga guard would be talking to him.

Didn't the entire village consider him a traitor? Wouldn't the great Hyuuga Hiashi instruct every last member of the Hyuuga clan to avoid any sort of contact with the deserter?

This guy must have some guts; surely, if the clan got wind of this, his branch seal would be activated and he'd be dead before he could take one more sip of his sake.

But, in a twisted sort of way, Sasuke could respect him. Anyone that risked their life to talk to public enemy number one commanded respect, and also some sort of response for their comment.

"I suppose so," murmured Sasuke. He raised the bottle to his lips and drank, hoping the guard would leave him alone now.

He wouldn't want to be blamed for the activation of the seal. As if he needed another crime to be added to his record.

The guard seemed dissatisfied with his answer. He obviously thought it dangerous to be talking to the Uchiha and was impressed by his own courage.

This was the only conclusion Sasuke came up with for the guard's continuation of the conversation.

"So…how have things been? Have you found the village changed…since you came back I mean?" Hiashi leaned forward eagerly, like a child hoping to snatch some candy from his mother's hand.

_It's been nearly a year since I've returned…they act like I just came back yesterday._

A gulp of sake later. "Everything is exactly the same," said Sasuke, dismissing it with his original bored tone.

Not the answer Hiashi had been expecting. "Something has to have changed. You can't have been gone for three years and come back to everything being exactly the same."

Sasuke drank some more and pondered his response as he did. It must be the influence of the sake, he thought as a wild idea popped into his head. _I could have some fun with this…_

"Well…" said Sasuke, hoping his hesitance didn't seem too put on. He gave a long pause for suspense. Hiashi scowled; this guy was wearing down his patience.

Sasuke smirked at the other man's displeased expression.

"Well," he said again, "I did find one thing changed." He nearly laughed at the impatience beginning to show itself on Hiashi's disguised face.

"Well, what was it?" Hiashi said, unable to completely disguise his keenness.

"Girls," said Sasuke simply, his face an emotionless marble bust.

"Girls?" said Hiashi incredulously.

"Girls," repeated Sasuke solemnly.

"Girls…" exhaled Hiashi as he leaned back in his stool. This was not what he had expected.

The corner of Sasuke's lip curved upwards, thoroughly entertained by the man's response.

Hiashi asked, "Any lady in particular caught your eye?"

This was the juiciest gossip Hiashi had heard in quite a while. Everyone had speculated that Sasuke swung the other way.

It would have made his joining of Orochimaru much easier to understand. And to find that he actually _did_ like women!

_Oh yes. I'm so glad you asked, _thought Sasuke, eager to see how his plan would play out.

He also wasn't going to lie; this particular young woman _had_ caught his eye.

She seemed different from the other girls, perhaps not with their same level of attractiveness, but it was this same lack that made her all the more interesting.

She was his enigma, a puzzle to be put together, a riddle to be solved.

His interest was not lustful, just curiosity. Who was this girl and what about her captured his attention so much?

"Yes, actually, one has," said Sasuke, his eyes peeking from beneath his eyelids to gauge the guard's expression.

He seemed so eager, he might just explode. It made him want to laugh.

Hiashi leaned forward once again. Getting information from this guy had been easier than he'd thought. Must be the alcohol.

"Who is it?" the clan leader asked tensely, as if the fate of the world depended on Sasuke's answer.

Sasuke simply leaned back in his barstool with a slight smile on his face. _Wait till this guy runs off to tell the clan leader…_

Sasuke could practically feel the other guy's heartbeat. The suspense was palpable, the guard's eagerness tangible.

_Come on! Who is it?!_

Finally Sasuke opened his eyes and faced the guard.

With a certain mischievous tone, he answered, "Hyuuga…Hinata."

It was amazing to see the change of expression in the Hyuuga guard. It went from eager, to amazement, to shocked, to furious.

Once it reached furious, Sasuke stood. He took one last glance at the stunned Hiashi and chuckled. "Perhaps we'll see each other again sometime…don't count on it though, I won't be allowed anywhere near Konoha after this."

With that, he took his leave.

A furious Hiashi was left to pay for his and Sasuke's drink. However, he only ever carried enough for his one bottle of sake, and was forced to wash dishes in the back to pay for the 3 bottles Sasuke had managed to consume in such a short amount of time.

_I hate Sasuke Uchiha, _thought the Hyuuga clan head. Except this time… he really did mean it.

* * *

A/N: And that, ladies and gentlegays, is why Hiashi hates Sasuke so much. Not so much SasuHina, but I absolutely love Hiashi and Sasuke interaction, it makes me giggle insanely.


	13. Migraine

Heh heh heh hehaha hahaha hahahahahahaha!! Um... yes. Well, how do I explain... I don't think I _can _explain what force of evil helped birth this strange chapter.

I guess I'll just blame it on my migraine.

* * *

A throbbing, a pulsating, thumping with the beat of his heart. His head felt as if it was about to split in two, and still, he resisted the pain.

A man who couldn't stand a migraine was a sorry excuse for a man, he reminded himself. He had stood worse. What was a migraine to the great Uchiha Sasuke?

Headaches were nothing new to him. He had stood them all his life.

His father had been a headache. His brother had been a headache. His roommate, the blonde one with the scars across his cheeks and the big dopey grin, was a headache. And his fangirls. Each one of them had been a pain, and together they had amounted to the largest migraine he'd ever experienced.

So why did he find himself walking down the street to the store?

Was it because he was tired of the headaches? There was only so much a person could stand, after all.

Had he finally reached his limit? Was this what it took, a single migraine that was less painful than others he'd suffered?

He was a sorry excuse for a man, thought Sasuke, shaking his head as he walked along the sidewalk.

Perhaps getting rid of the headaches wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe it would feel good, to finally be free of the pain.

In any case, it hadn't been his idea. Naruto had been in the apartment they shared, banging open cabinets in his futile quest for ramen. He had gladly volunteered to visit the store and buy the stuff, so long as it got him out of the room and away from the insane idiot. Medicine didn't sound like such a bad idea either.

He was so annoying. Why did they live together again? Oh right… easier to pay the rent.

Having not paid attention to where he was going, it came as a surprise to him as his feet took him through a pair of sliding automatic doors. Air conditioning felt good on his throbbing head, although the lights hit his sensitive eyes in a way that worsened the pain.

As he passed down the aisles, hands in pockets and frown firmly in place, Sasuke remembered that he didn't even know in what aisle to find ramen.

Great, he thought. This is going to take forever…

Not that he was eager to get back home to be subjected to hear Tales of the Perv Professor as Naruto slurped noodles at the speed of light. He didn't care too much to hear about the old man who ignored the subject he was supposed to teach and decided to tell the young men in his class about the books he'd written, back when he did "research."

But the lights in here were really strong, and the song over the radio was very "in" at the moment, and there happened to be someone watching him while they swept the aisles with one of those grocery store broom/mop contraptions.

Sasuke didn't really like men with pink hair and rainbow pins looking him up and down. It was one thing having fangirls, but fanboys?

More headaches to deal with. Did they go around trying to find him, or was it pure coincidence?

Unfortunately, the pink haired employee had left his mop leaning up against a shelf and was walking over to Sasuke and now it was too late to just turn on his heel and walk away.

"Hello sir," said the pink haired guy in a girlish voice that didn't suit his male body. "Can I do anything for you?"

Was it just him, or was there a double meaning to the words?

"You could stop looking me up and down like I'm a piece of meat," answered Sasuke, irritation coloring his tone.

The pink haired guy raised his eyebrows.

Sasuke sighed. "And you can tell me where to find some ramen. That would be helpful."

"Aisle 15," answered pink haired guy as he walked back towards his mop.

"Thanks," said Sasuke with a nod.

He turned on his heel and headed towards what he thought was aisle 15… only to realize that he was heading in completely the wrong direction.

How the hell does someone get lost in a grocery store anyway, he thought, annoyed by his stupidity. Whatever. It's just the migraine messing with my brain.

Finally, he found the ramen. Naruto had said he'd wanted a certain type.

Sasuke stared at the wall of soup, not really reading the titles. Then, deciding he didn't really care what kind of ramen Naruto wanted, he swept an entire shelf into his arms.

There. Now he couldn't whine that he didn't get the right type.

He strode off in search of migraine medicine. Luckily for him, he _did_ know where to find the pharmacy section of the store. It was either at one end or the other; he could never remember which end, though.

I'll just go this way, he thought, turning to the left. Fortunately, this was the right way. There it was, the pharmacy in all its medicinal glory, white and sterile as a doctor's lab coat. It was so bright, it made his head throb even more.

He walked up to the counter, looking for someone to get him his medicine. There was nobody there. Just rows and rows of colorful boxes and even brighter lights.

"Hello," he called out, somewhat irritated. He rapped his fingers impatiently on the counter.

He heard the clacking of shoes growing stronger and stronger.

_Took you long enough…_

From behind the tall, stocked shelves stepped a small woman whose head probably wouldn't reach Sasuke's chin. She wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses and had strange indigo hair and white eyes. There was a soft smile on her face and an happy air about her as she stepped up to the counter.

"Hello there," she said cheerily.

Sasuke merely stared.

"Is there something I can get you," she asked, one eyebrow raised. Perhaps he forgot to take his medication…?

_Wake up, idiot._ "Um yes," he said, looking for her nametag. Hinata, it read.

She waited patiently.

"I'd like some migraine pills," he said, peering down at the counter as if to look for them.

"What kind would you like," she asked, half turning towards the shelves, her voice light and soft. The perfect volume for his migraine.

"Uh…" he said, having not paid attention to what she'd said. "Any kind," he said, waving his hand indifferently." He vaguely noticed the light scent of lavender whenever she stirred the air with her movements.

"Here you go," she said, setting down the box on the counter. "Anything else," she asked.

"No," he said. He was ogling now, he could feel it.

_Why is he looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?_

He noticed when she brushed lightly at her cheek. For some strange reason, it made him gulp.

"Don't you hate it when you have a migraine," she said, attempting to make small talk as she scanned his migraine pills.

He nodded, still staring at her intently.

_Why does he look so frustrated? Did I do something wrong?_

She racked her brains for something she could have done to offend him. _No… I don't think so._

"Have a good night, sir," she said, thrusting the medicine bag forward into his hands. "Hope your migraine goes away!" And with that, she went to hide behind the shelves, hoping the man wasn't crazy enough to hop over the counter and attack her or something.

Meanwhile, Sasuke stood there, staring at her receding back. He then walked off to pay for the ramen, and on his way out the door, tossed his box of migraine pills into the garbage can.

He wouldn't need them anymore. His migraine had gone away.


	14. Crying doesn't help

Perhaps my most ambitious chapter thus far, _Crying doesn't help_ was long under construction. I forgot about it for a while, and recently felt inspired enough to have another go at it.

Looking at this, I'm guessing some people would tell me to make it a full lenth fic. I have a tendency of leaving things feeling unfinished. But in a way, I sort of like that. It leaves me free to imagine different endings to the stories, let's me speculate what I would have written next, without making it concrete and definite. I like a little bit of wiggle room for my imagination.

Enough of my unnecessary chatter. I present to you _Crying doesn't help. _Enjoy!

_

* * *

___

Crying Doesn't Help

The blonde man stood in front of a peeling door, staring at the rusted 23 looking about to slide clean off the door, tired and dead after so many years of being the victim of vandalistic teenagers. Deciding that standing there wasn't about to make the door open, he knocked. Three sharp, hard knocks.

Before he had even finished the last knock, the door creaked open. A single black eye stared at him from beneath the chain lock. There was a low oath from the owner of the black eye. Then, as suddenly as it had opened, it closed again and the sounds of fumbling with metal could be heard, and the door opened once more, the visible space filled with the lean body of a man wearing a sports jersey and holding a bottle of alcohol. He looked positively pissed.

"What the hell are you doing here, Naruto?" said the man angrily.

The blonde only raised an eyebrow. From the folds of his orange jacket he produced a brown paper bag, dripping with grease at the bottom.

"I brought you food."

The black haired man peered down at the brown bag, looking confused. But it was only for a second as he quickly recomposed his expression into that of anger.

"You think I can't feed myself," he spat. "I'm a grown man, god damn it, I can take care of myself."

The blonde only continued standing there, holding out his paper bag as if expecting the angry man to yank it from his hand unexpectedly.

"I'm tired of all you guys coming and trying to take care of me, you and Sakura and Kakashi. I'm not some baby," he said, his face contorted in annoyance.

"Just take the damn bag, Sasuke. Sakura'll be mad if I come home with it. She thinks you're starving and I've taken enough crap from her, cause she thinks I don't care anymore."

"Good. I don't want any of you to care anymore."

"Too bad. You're our friend, we have to care about you," said Naruto plainly.

"Who's making you? I know I'm not. Take that bag back to Sakura and tell her to stop sending you with food. And if you see Kakashi, tell him to keep his nose out of my business. Doesn't the guy have enough with running that porn shop of his?" said Sasuke.

"Sasuke, just take the food," said Naruto, a plea in his voice. "I didn't come here to argue, and I'm no messenger boy. You wanna tell them that stuff, you find them and tell them yourself. Don't think I'm here because I want to be, I'm practically done with you. I'm here because Sakura wants me to do this, but I've had enough. I've had enough of you being rude to my girlfriend, and I've had enough of hearing her talk about how lonely you are, how you don't want to eat anything, how we're your only goddamn friends. I've had it with trying to help you out and you refusing all my help. I've had enough of you being a whiny little bitch. Man up, for god sakes," he finished angrily, the stress of the last few years finally breaking through his well erected wall of tolerant patience.

Sasuke stood there, his eyebrows furrowed, glaring at his blonde friend. For the longest time, he said nothing. He continued to glower at the man before him, hoping to make him back down. But Naruto showed no signs of weakness. He glared back with the same intensity, thoroughly pissed off. When it became apparent that neither of them were going to back down, Naruto thrust the bag into Sasuke's chest.

"I don't even know what it is. But she made it greasy, so it's bound to be good. Enjoy," he said flatly. He turned on his heel and began to walk away.

Sasuke continued to stand there, glaring at his friend's retreating back and clutching the greasy paper bag. After the blonde had gone turned to go down the stairs, he shut himself inside his apartment and ripped open the brown paper, inhaling the smell of something homemade and dripping in fat. He practically shuddered. It smelled so good.

No matter how much he would fight against it, he had to admit that Sakura's cooking was great. It was probably the only thing he envied of the blonde idiot. The guy ate like this _every day._ It would probably explain why he looked so healthy. He'd definitely gained weight in the last year.

Sasuke reached into the paper bag and brought out something wrapped in shiny silver foil. He unwrapped it quickly and scarfed it down without waiting to see what it was. He then leaned back against the wall with his eyes clothes, sighing happily.

Real food. When was the last time he'd had any of _that_?

* * *

She didn't need any of them. She didn't want any of them. She hated them. Who were they to boss her around and tell her what to do?

"'And you really need a boyfriend, and you need to use makeup, and you've got such a figure, why in the world don't you wear something that shows it off,'" she said in a high voice, as she stumbled along the winding street in the high heels _they _had forced her to wear.

"I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want it. I'm a grown woman, for goodness sake, can't they just treat me that way," she muttered under her breath, wincing as the shoes pinched her feet.

Hinata had just spent the last few hours being forced to hear things about herself that she never wanted to hear again.

Ino had told her to buy new clothes. Tenten had told her to be more assertive. And the person she thought would stand up for her, her younger sister Hanabi, had just sat there nodding. Then they'd made her put on an uncomfortable pair of heels that were butchering her feet as she walked. Eventually, she'd managed to escape by saying she had to return home to do work. As if that had helped very much. It had only launched them further into the Overall Evaluation of Hyuuga Hinata, allowing them to tell her what a terrible person she was for being a workaholic.

But really, she was proud of herself. She'd stood through it all without shedding a single tear. Yes, she'd stuttered through the entire thing, but she had never cried. It made her feel a bit better.

But not all that better. She had now been wandering down the street for a little over half an hour, forgetting to watch where she was going as she murmured a silent litany about her terrible day and her terrible friends. As she stopped on the corner of a street and took in her surroundings, she found that she was lost. She didn't recognize any of the landmarks, the street signs rang no bells, and many of the street lamps were broken. Definitely not a good neighborhood.

Strangely though, that didn't really matter to her at the moment. So frustrated was she that panic could find no room inside her already aggravated mind. And really, there was nothing that appealed to her more at the moment than drowning her sorrows in a bottle of booze. She had never done it before, but she figured that if so many people did it, it must be quite the therapeutic practice. Lucky for her, there was a pub right behind her. All she had to do was walk in.

_

* * *

_

I don't need them. They're not my only friends. I've got plenty of other cooler friends. Like…

He racked his brains.

_Ok… maybe I don't._

It was true. As much as he hated to admit it, Sakura, Naruto, and Kakashi were his only friends.

Well… that could be changed.

Shoulders hunched, he pushed himself into the pub at the edge of town.

A bell clanged somewhere as he stepped inside. It was warm inside, the lighting was dusty, and it was almost empty. Only a few bodies sat slumped at the shining wood counter, looking miserably into the depths of their glasses.

He joined them, putting a seat between him and the next body at the bar, not wanting any conversation from the people here.

_That's the last thing I need. Dragging myself further into this stupid hole by getting drunks for friends. As if I didn't already have a problem…_

"What would you like, sir?" asked the bartender, a balding man with a large and wiry beard.

"Beer," said Sasuke.

_Well, at least I'm getting somewhere_, he thought dryly as the bartender set down his beer in front of him.

_I've admitted that I don't have any other friends. Denial passed, acceptance done. What's the next step after this?_

He took a swig from his bottle. The drink tasted bitter in his mouth.

Resignedly, he sighed. _I guess I have to get new friends. That could be a good change…_

The bell clanged as the door opened and momentarily let in a draft. Sasuke was so deeply immersed in his thoughts that he paid it no mind.

Until a dull thud alerted him to someone seating themselves to his right with exactly a single barstool between them.

He turned to see a purple-haired girl with tears rolling silently down her pale cheeks.

"Beer please," she said quietly, sniffling slightly.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, downing another gulp of beer. Nothing annoyed him more than when people cried. It was useless. He had long been convinced that crying didn't solve anything.

Beside him, he could hear the girl sniffling uselessly, trying to stop the tears from coming. It was all in vain, though, and Hinata knew she was fighting a losing battle.

So she stopped fighting.

She began sobbing almost uncontrollably, her low alcohol tolerance allowing her to do so more freely. She was embarrassed of the strange choking, gasping noises she was making, but she couldn't stop once she began.

Next to her, Sasuke scowled. What was worse than when a girl cried? When she cried obnoxiously.

"Stop crying," he said coldly, taking another swig of his beer.

Hinata turned to look at him, bewildered, managing to say between gasps, "Excuse me?"

"Don't act like you didn't hear me," said Sasuke, his tone unnecessarily angry. Hinata was taken aback by his behavior. Since when was it acceptable to be rude to a complete stranger?

"Stop crying," he repeated, turning to face forward again to ask for another beer.

Hinata, meanwhile, managed to quiet her crying to occasional hiccups, the kind that shook the entire body and made it feel as if your heart was about to jump out of your chest.

"Sorry," she said quietly. It didn't nearly have the sarcastic air she'd aimed for. Instead, it came out soft and weak sounding.

"Fine," said Sasuke, tone still hard. "Why were you crying, anyway?"

Hinata had the sensation that he didn't really care.

_He probably just feels guilty he was rude._

"I-I've had a b-bad day," she stammered through her hiccups.

Sasuke gave a dry laugh. "That seems like a stupid reason to cry."

Hinata's heart sank. So he wasn't doing it because he was guilty. He just liked to hurt people.

"I think it's a perfectly good reason to cry," she said defiantly, surprised at her own bravery.

"Oh really," he asked, stopping his bottle midway to his mouth and raising an eyebrow.

Hinata gave a tiny nod.

"Well, if we cried every time we had a bad day, we'd cry so much our bodies would die of water deprivation," said Sasuke. "Stupid reason to cry, really, having a bad day. Especially when there are worse things in this world," he muttered darkly.

"Like what?" she asked, sniffling slightly.

_Loneliness…_

"Kidnappings," said Sasuke, avoiding her gaze as if his real thoughts were clear in his eyes. "War, famine, poverty. All that good stuff."

"Well… sometimes y-you can't help it. Sometimes it helps," she pointed out.

"Crying doesn't help anything," he disagreed.

He frowned at her slightly, an inexplicable frustration in his eyes. Why was he still talking to her? She was easily the most annoying girl he'd met in a long while. He wondered at his idiocy.

_Must be the alcohol, _he thought, glaring at the bottle as if it was its fault that he was unexplainably interested in this uninteresting _thing._

"Drinking doesn't help anything either, and yet here you are," the uninteresting _thing_ said with a wry smile.

"Drinking does help," he contradicted. "Besides, how do you know I'm trying to help something?"

"You're alone and you're getting drunk at a bar. What more do you need?"

Sasuke frowned even more deeply. "And you're one to talk. Look around you. You're alone and getting drunk at a bar. What more do _you_ need?"

She smiled lightly, the only sign that she had been crying was the redness of her nose. "Yes," she agreed. "I suppose that's true."

For a moment, there was silence.

"But I'm also stronger," she said, so quietly that Sasuke wasn't sure he heard right.

"What?"

She jumped. "Nothing," she said, her eyes wide and innocent.

"No, no," he said, refusing to let her off. "You said something. What was it?"

"Um… I said I'm also stronger… t-than you, I m-mean." _Great. Now he'll get all mad. Drunk men are worse when they're mad._

Sasuke gazed at her incredulously, mouth open in disbelief. _Did she just say what I think she said?_

"I-I'm sorry!" she said, trying to take back what she'd said. "I didn't really mean that!"

Sasuke drank deeply, shaking his head slightly. When he stopped he said, "No. No, you meant every word."

"No, I really didn't," Hinata repeated. She hated to be rude. How could she have said such a thing?

"You did," said Sasuke, throwing a few bills onto the counter and standing up to leave.

"Please don't leave! I didn't really mean that! I'm stupid, I'm sorry. Please don't leave," she plead.

_What is wrong with me? I barely even know this guy! Why do I care so much?_

Sasuke began to walk towards the door, maneuvering expertly between the tight spaces.

Before she knew what she was doing, Hinata was following him.

"Please stop," her voice breaking slightly at the end. Sasuke paused, his back to her and his hand holding the door handle. She didn't know it, but he was smirking, amused by her persistence. Plus, he enjoyed upsetting her.

Without turning he said in a low voice, "I'll stay. But only if you don't say that again."

Hinata nodded vigorously, then, realizing he couldn't see it, breathed a yes.

He turned and walked back to the bar, Hinata following close behind him, both surprised at their own audacity.

_Wonderful, _both of them thought. _Dragging myself further into this stupid hole by getting drunks for friends…_

* * *

That was how the friendship began.

Against their better judgment, they became friends. For a long time, they were both puzzled as to why they had continued the late night drinking parties with only each other for company. They didn't understand how two strangers that were complete opposites could coincide comfortably in a habit as unhealthy as drinking.

Both felt dragged along by some strange force that neither could control, something that drew them together in ways that they had never imagined.

For example, Hinata wondered at how she had managed to gather enough courage to even talk to him, much less be rude to him.

Sasuke wondered why the hell it was so easy to talk to her.

Both wondered why they could be themselves around each other without feeling awkward.

Hinata blamed it on their first meeting. If at their first meeting they had been everything unacceptable and embarrassing (drunk, sobbing obnoxiously, rude to one another) there was nothing else they could do that could possibly surprise the other one.

Eventually, they stopped wondering and decided to just go with it. They each found something in each other that the other lacked. It was difficult to explain, but it felt as if they completed one another.

Everyone they knew disagreed. They couldn't understand how two people so different could get along so well.

But really, neither Hinata nor Sasuke cared. They were content in each other's company, and didn't give a damn if anyone approved or not.

Eventually, Sasuke began to see Hinata in a different light. When had her blush been so adorable? Had she always been so cute when smiled? And she didn't mind him being an insensitive asshole.

These feelings bothered him. Why ruin a perfectly good friendship with… attraction?

But he wasn't the only one feeling it. Hinata too had begun to look at Sasuke differently. His dark brooding eyes made her heart beat faster whenever he looked at her, he listened instead of trying to change her, and she soon found out that his mean comments were only to cover up how much he really cared.

Before they knew it, they were in love.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of a peeling door, staring at the rusted 23 looking about to slide clean off the door, tired and dead after so many years of being the victim of vandalistic teenagers. Deciding that standing there wasn't about to make the door open, he knocked on the door.

Nobody answered.

"Sasuke," Naruto called, hoping his friend would hear him.

Still, the door remained closed.

"Sasuke, open up, it's me Naruto." He stuck his ear against the door, straining to hear some sound of life from within the apartment.

Nothing.

"Sasuke," he called again. "I want to talk to you… and I've got food!" He held up the brown paper bag as if Sasuke could see it.

There was no response, and the door didn't open. Naruto sighed.

"If you don't open this door, I'm going to tear it down," he threatened.

There was no answer.

"Ok," he said. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this but… guess I'll have to."

He was really hoping Sasuke would open his door. No such luck.

"3…2…1…" He closed his eyes as he prepared to kick down the door.

_Creak._

The door had opened a tiny crack, and a bloodshot eye peered lazily at Naruto balanced precariously on one foot.

"What d'ya want," Sasuke slurred.

"I want to talk to you," said Naruto, standing on both feet now.

Sasuke looked at him for a few long moments. Then he shut the door, fumbled with the locks, and opened it again. "Come in," he said.

Naruto followed the black-haired man into the apartment. Empty bottles and old pizza boxes littered the floor. He had to scrunch up his nose against the strange smell… was it vomit?

Sasuke led him to the couch, and slid bottles off the couch to clear a space for Naruto. He himself sat down on his recliner, grabbing the bottle set on the table beside it and chugging noisily.

It wasn't until he sat down that Naruto got a good look at his friend. He didn't like what he saw.

Sasuke looked like he hadn't shaven in a long time. His hair looked limp and unkempt, his skin sallow and unhealthy. He was wearing sweatpants and the old sports jersey, which now sported a mysterious brown stain. He looked like he hadn't eaten in days.

"What do you want to talk about?"

Naruto eyed him gravely. "Just wanted to see how you've been doing."

"I've been doing great," said Sasuke with heavy sarcasm.

Naruto ignored it. "Have you talked to Hinata lately?"

Sasuke frowned. "No." He glared down at the hands clasping the bottle.

Naruto stared at him. The seconds ticked by.

"I brought you some food," said Naruto, suddenly remembering the bag Sakura had given him. He held out the brown paper sack.

Sasuke gazed at it as if not really seeing it.

"Thanks," he muttered, still not taking it. Instead, he gulped down some more whiskey.

"Maybe you shouldn't drink that," said Naruto uncertainly.

Sasuke scowled at him. "I'll drink whatever I want," he snapped.

"But Sasuke, it looks like you've been drinking a lot." He gestured towards the many bottles that covered the room's surfaces.

"I don't care. There's nothing else I want to do," he said quietly.

"Sasuke. You can't live like this," said Naruto, shaking his head sadly. It upset him that his friend was like this; especially after seeing how happy he had been with Hinata. Why did that have to fall apart?

"I can live however I want. Nobody cares anyway," said Sasuke insolently.

"I care. Sakura and Kakashi cares. And…" he hesitated. "Hinata cares," he said more quietly.

Sasuke laughed darkly. "If she cared so much, why did she leave me?"

"Because… you wouldn't stop drinking. And… you hurt her, Sasuke."

Sasuke looked aghast. "I would never hurt her," he retorted angrily.

"But you did, Sasuke, you did. She couldn't live with someone hurting her everyday," said Naruto, trying to reason with his friend.

Sasuke said nothing, just stared at a spot on the far wall.

"What's she been up to," he asked casually.

Naruto seemed reluctant to answer.

"She's working at the hospital… in the ward dealing with addictions," he murmured, unable to meet his eyes.

Sasuke gulped. His vision was suddenly very blurry, and he wondered why.

"Tell me… is she happy," he said quietly.

Naruto nodded slowly. "She is."

"That's…good." Did his voice just crack? His voiced never cracked.

Naruto glanced at his friend, and quickly looked away. _He's…crying._

Indeed he was. Sasuke could feel the tears going slowly down his face, sliding off the tip of his chin to land on his lap. He made no attempt to wipe them, no attempt to hide them. He just sat there, staring blankly at the opposite wall as the tears rolled silently down his face.

He had long been convinced that crying didn't solve anything. Someone had once told him that perhaps, just maybe, crying could help.

He hadn't believed them.

He still didn't. It felt as if his heart was cracking into a million tiny pieces. And crying definitely was not helping.

He took a long swig of his bottle, his tears flowing with the drink.

_This, however…this is helping. She said drinking didn't help anything._

He continued chugging. Naruto watched helplessly as his friend drank steadily, unable to interrupt his misery.

_She doesn't know a goddamn thing._


	15. Vindicated

I'm sorry, I couldn't stop myself. After listening to _Vindicated_ by Dashboard Confessional over and over for several hours, your mind starts whirring and your fingers start itching to type.

Also, I just finished reading _the host_ by Stephanie Meyer, and the whole idea of two minds within one body is still strong in _my_ mind (which is only one mind in one body, I am happy to say). So she's probably to blame for the inner dialogue.

As for a few other things, Augustana's _Sweet and Low_ is the way to go. Watch that music video, it's very nice.

My inspirations; they matter lots.

_

* * *

___

Vindicated

It was almost a miracle that days like this could exist.

He followed her with his hands in his pockets as she carved a path through the tall swaying grasses.

"Where are you taking me," he asked with a sigh.

She turned to look at him over her shoulder, a smile on her face. "I can't tell you, it's a surprise."

"I don't like surprises," he told her.

She gave a tinkling laugh, the kind that made his heart swell strangely.

"You'll like this one," she said, voice carrying in the breeze.

"Hmph," grunted Sasuke.

Of all the things to do with your free Saturday, why go into some grassy field? It didn't make much sense to him.

Then again, a lot of things about Hinata made no sense to him.

Like how she curled her toes from the cold when she slept and refused to put on socks, or how she wouldn't sleep when he was away, or how she would sometimes unexplainably disappear into the corner of her garden on days when Sasuke was in a particularly bad mood.

Or like how she'd managed to put up with his crap for so long.

_I still don't see what she sees in me_, he thought as he stepped over a well-hidden mound of dirt between the grasses.

He kept his gaze on her small form traveling rapidly through the field, occasionally looking back at him to make sure he hadn't decided to turn back and stop following her.

He hadn't, though he was going at a much slower pace.

"Hurry up, Sasuke," she called back, impatient to get to whatever it was she wanted to show him.

"I'm right here," he said, not quickening his pace.

_For one, I'm pretty damn selfish. If I wasn't so selfish, I'd have told her to leave me by now. _As soon as he thought it, something tightened in his chest, and he immediately shied away from the pain.

_But look, _told himself, as if he was somehow two people within his own head. _She loves you. You make her happy. You can't be selfish if she wants you too._

Sasuke shook his head, eyes still stuck on the purple hair several yards ahead of him.

_She only _thinks _I make her happy. She doesn't know what true happiness is. If she knew what someone else could offer her, someone capable of loving, she wouldn't stick around. _

Again, the little voice that argued with him, the one that he desperately wanted to believe, disagreed.

_But you _are_ loving. How many guys would follow their girls through the middle of a grassy field when they could be doing something else?_

_Any number of guys, _Sasuke answered back matter-of-factly. He lost sight of Hinata as she went down a hill, and began to hurry his footsteps in order to catch up.

As soon as he could see her again, he slowed down a bit.

_Yes, but you actually want to be here, _the voice said.

_You're wrong, _thought Sasuke, frowning. What kind of guy would he be if he wanted to run through a giant field of grass?

The voice ignored him. _I'm right, _it told him, almost smug.

_Wrong, _Sasuke contradicted him.

_Right. I know I'm right. And I'd swear you know I'm right too. _Now it was definitely smug.

Sasuke sighed resignedly. _Ok, maybe you're right. Maybe being here isn't so bad…maybe I even like it, _he admitted sheepishly.

_I knew it all along_, the voice said, feeling superior.

_You're so pompous._

"It's just a bit further, Sasuke," Hinata called, momentarily bringing him back to the present.

"Don't worry, I'm keeping up," he called back.

_But see, it doesn't matter if I enjoy being with her. Or even that she enjoys being with me. Because I know that I've got too many problems for this to work in the long run. How it's even gotten this far is a mystery to me._

The voice made an exasperated noise.

_Who doesn't have problems? Really, Sasuke, you're not selfish, but you sure as hell are full of yourself. You think that other people in relationships don't have a past? Dead wrong, buddy._

Sasuke raised his eyebrows. The voice had never gotten wound up before. It was always pretty calm.

_What's your problem?_

_My "problem" is that you think you're so selfish, so damaged that you can't love her. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If you were so selfish, do you honestly believe you'd spend so much of your time thinking about what's best for her? If you were so selfish, do you think you'd really give her what she wants whenever she asks for it? You must have noticed that you're putty in her hands. Hell, everyone else around you has noticed it._

Sasuke was speechless.

_Stop stressing. You're doing fine, stupid one. Doing just fine._

It was almost as if the voice was patting him on the back.

_Um…thanks._ Sasuke was still recovering from the unexpected lecture.

"It's just over this hill," said Hinata, glowing with excitement.

_You, my friend, have just been vindicated. Conscience 1, Sasuke 0. _

"Hurry up, Sasuke!" She was practically tingling with anticipation. Unable to wait for him any longer, she ran back and grabbed his hand, dragging him along to make him hurry up faster.

His eyes widened at her strength. Who knew this tiny thing could yank a body that hard?

"Just over this hill," she said, loping forward with him stumbling along behind her.

Then Hinata came to an abrupt stop, causing Sasuke to crash into her.

"Look!" She pointed down into the valley between the hills.

Sasuke's eyes grew wide. "How did you know this was here?"

"I tried to run away when I was younger," admitted Hinata, blushing, "and I came across this field when got lost."

"It's really… pretty," mumbled Sasuke. It really was.

"Isn't it?" She smiled and led him into the field of flowers.


	16. Revenge Contemplation

A/N: Gotta learn to keep it short and simple.

_

* * *

___

Revenge Contemplation

It had become a habit for him to wander at night, alone with his thoughts, free to pretend he was alone and free of any vengeful will.

The only problem with pretending he had fulfilled revenge was that it left a large emptiness, a void begging to be filled by something.

Something, but he didn't know what that something was.

Worse still, this left him wondering what he would do once his revenge had been completed.

Before, he had imagined that he would die while killing his brother. But he had rarely considered the possibility of him surviving the fight. Now, he wondered what would become of him if he managed to kill the other Uchiha.

He wouldn't be able to settle down anywhere. No country would have him, he would be a rogue ninja. He'd be doomed to roam the lands, setting himself up for hire, a true assassin with a notorious pedigree.

He smirked slightly at the thought. Somehow, it suited him.

Yet, it still left something to be desired.

Something like what he had now.

What was it that he had now?

Friends that cared for him. A village to fight for. A place to live, complete with electricity and running water. And…

He ran his hand through his hair.

A well-paying job.

He shook his head. No, that wasn't what he had meant to say at all.

Someone to love. Someone who loved him back.

Yes, that was it. That was what was left to be desired if he got his revenge. He probably couldn't have both.

Either revenge… or what he had now, which was a pretty good deal.

Who was he kidding? It was better than a pretty good deal. It was probably the best deal he could ever get.

Revenge paled in comparison.

He swept back his hair with a sigh.

Perhaps revenge wasn't so great after all…


	17. In the Shadows

A/N: Excuse my mess.  


* * *

_In the Shadows_

He leaned in, putting his face close to his blonde competitor. His eyes were dark, and he was scowling, practically snarling at his ex-best friend.

"Just know Naruto… when you mess up, I'll be waiting. I'll be there, in the shadows, for the moment when you make a mistake. Because you _will_ make one, I can guarantee it. And I'll be there, waiting with open arms to mend it," he growled lowly, pushing his finger roughly into the chest of the orange jacket.

The Kyuubi glared back defiantly. "Guess you'll never see sunlight again then," he murmured.

"What was that?" came Sasuke's sharp reply.

"You'll be stuck in the shadows your entire life. Because I'll never make a mistake. Ever." He crossed his arms, attempting to close the subject. She'd be out any second now, and it would upset her if she saw the two of them arguing.

Sasuke merely glared back at him, anger displaying itself in ever hard line of his face, emanating from his very person.

"You better hope so… for your sake," he said, his voice deadly in the silence.

Just then, the sound of the door could be heard slamming. Both men turned, the object of their devotion making its way through the door, fumbling with her bag and sweeping her long hair aside. She was smiling contentedly, her disposition completely opposite to that of the hallway where the two men quarreled.

"Are you ready to go," asked Naruto, failing to get rid of the gruff tone that had appeared in response to Sasuke's rough voice.

"Yes," she said happily, failing to notice the tense awkwardness that had enveloped the young men since she had entered.

"Good. We'll be off then… Sasuke," he said, nodding to the black haired man as he shoved past him.

She followed him, granting Sasuke the pleasant smile she reserved for friends.

He merely nodded back, fighting the urge to grab her, choosing instead to slink back into the shadows.

_I'll be watching…I'll be waiting… for as long as need be. _


	18. Pretend

A/N: What originally started out as no more than 200 words evolved into this. It also began as something totally different, but as one thing led to another, the story changed, the point I was trying to get across was different, and I became more satisfied and also increasingly unsatisfied with it. I've a love/hate relationship with this one.

Anyway, I decided it deserved a chance to be judged by a more unbiased audience. So here it is.

_

* * *

___

Pretend

It was difficult to tell when Sasuke was enjoying something.

Usually, if Sasuke liked something, he looked just like he looked when he didn't like something.

Completely expressionless.

However, judging by the kind of person Sasuke was, it was fairly easy to _guess_ when Sasuke was enjoying something.

To a person that knew him, it would be easy to guess how Sasuke felt about parties.

He hated them.

They were loud, overly packed with people who wore too much perfume, and the food usually sucked. And they tended to involve dancing, which was one form of torture that Sasuke preferred to avoid.

In fact, only the combined brainpower of his gray-haired mentor and his blonde-headed friend could force him to go to a party. That was what had happened today.

He reflected bitterly on how they'd done it. What aggravated him most was how he had fallen for it completely.

What other reason could the two possibly have to make him dress up in borrowed clothes, suitable for a dinner at the fancy restaurant that the two men had promised him?

Naruto didn't even like to eat in formal restaurants. He would rather eat at some curbside stand that served ramen than put on a button-up shirt to eat at some place where he couldn't even read the menu.

It should have been obvious they had been planning something. He should have seen it in the way they wouldn't meet his eyes.

And now, because he had fallen for their tricks, he was here. How could he have forgotten that today was the day of Sakura's birthday party?

Perhaps it wasn't so surprising. He tried to ignore her as much as possible, so of course it would make sense to completely forget about the lace-covered invitation he had tossed aside without a second thought and had been left to be forgotten underneath the piles of empty food cartons that accumulated on his kitchen table.

What he wouldn't give to be sitting at that trash covered kitchen table right now…

"Sasuke, would you like a drink?"

Sasuke was brought out of his sulking by a sickeningly familiar female voice.

"No thanks Sakura. I'm all set," he said, holding up his green glass bottle.

Sakura frowned. "I don't remember buying that."

He drank deeply from his bottle, trying to drown out her voice over the sound of his own gulps.

"You didn't. I already had it with me."

"Oh," said Sakura. She walked away, too hurt that Sasuke had brought his own drink to continue conversing with him.

Before she had even had gone farther than a few feet, someone else came to interrupt him in his thoughts.

"Sasuke, what are you doing all the way over here by yourself?"

It was Naruto.

"I'm leaning against this wall, hating you for bringing me here."

"Aww don't be like that! As long as you're here, you might as well enjoy yourself."

He shoved Sasuke playfully.

Sasuke punched him back.

"Ow! What was that for?" Naruto massaged the side of his face.

"Just venting out some of my anger. I'm still pretty damn pissed you brought me here against my will."

"That's no reason to punch me!" Naruto was practically yelling. Some people were turning to look into the hallway where the two men stood.

"On the contrary, my stupid friend. I believe being forced somewhere you don't want to go warrants the death sentence. But since we're at this party, I can't kill you the way I want to; too many witnesses."

He watched with satisfaction as Naruto's face went through the all the colors of the rainbow. It was truly amazing.

Naruto stomped away, nearly crashing into someone heading in his direction.

_Wonderful,_ thought Sasuke. _I get rid of one and there's another one already heading over here to make my hellish day even worse._

Couldn't these people just mind their own business and let him stick to himself in this hallway opening?

But he didn't think he knew this person. So why was she coming towards him?

_Kakashi probably sent her to bug me._ He scowled. Today truly was the worst day of his life.

She was fast approaching, and he ran through his head the meanest way to let her down; because really, if he was having a hellish day, everyone else needed to have one too.

As she was nearly in front of him, he opened his mouth to unleash his wickedness upon her. But before he was able to, the girl had maneuvered around him and into the hallway, her eyes staring blankly at something past him. Then, she quickly disappeared into the first door to the right.

He stood for a second, blinking in bewilderment.

What had just happened?

That was definitely against his expectations.

He got over it pretty quickly though. He was completely fine…until the girl came out and bumped into him.

"Oh I'm sorry!" the girl exclaimed. "I didn't see you there!"

Sasuke scowled. "Liar. I'm taking up the whole goddamn hallway; how the hell can you miss me?"

"Well… I was sort of… sort of preoccupied," the girl said, blushing slightly and looking away.

Confused, Sasuke followed her gaze. It lead to the far side of the room, where Naruto stood gesturing wildly as he told everyone who would listen about the time he got a particularly delicious bowl of ramen.

"That's no excuse to bump into me," said Sasuke angrily.

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry," said the girl quietly.

"Whatever," said Sasuke. "What's your name?"

"Hinata," the girl answered automatically.

"Why are you here Hinata?"

She looked bewildered.

"Um… well, I was in-invited."

"Hmm… so you know Sakura?"

"Yes," she said slowly, not seeing what he was getting at.

"Then how come I've never seen you before?" For some reason, it was really bothering him.

She shrugged. "You don't hang out with Sakura much."

Sasuke nodded. "Yes, that's true."

For a few long moments, neither one of them said anything.

"You really should hang out with her, you know. She likes you very much." Her eyes were wide and truthful. Sasuke hated wide, truthful eyes. They gave him the creeps.

"I don't like _her_ very much," he told her.

Hinata shrugged. "Ok then." She continued to stand there, staring blankly in thought.

Sasuke meanwhile drank from his green bottle. He surveyed the room.

Most everyone was milling around or lumped into little groups, conversing happily.

He looked at Kakashi and Naruto. They were standing together now, talking to each other in low voices.

Immediately Sasuke thought something was going on. Naruto was not one to talk quietly with someone. No, Naruto preferred the spotlight. Something was up.

He looked to his side and raised an eyebrow in surprise. Hinata was still there, staring blankly at the room, not seeming to have moved an inch since she'd last spoken.

"Enjoying the party," Sasuke asked sourly.

Hinata sighed, her eyes still unfocused. "No, not really."

That wasn't the answer Sasuke had expected. He had expected everything… except that.

"Yes, it's very fun."

"Sakura did a great job decorating the place."

"The food's pretty good."

"It's nice to see all my friends like this."

Those would all have been perfectly acceptable answers. The answer she gave was completely unacceptable.

"Why not?" asked Sasuke, somewhat intrigued.

"I don't know," said Hinata. "I guess I'm just not a party person." She gave him a small smile. "But I'm guessing you're not a party person either."

Sasuke gave a grunt of assent. "How could you tell?"

"You're hanging out in the hallway, drinking by yourself. It seems very anti-social."

Sasuke nodded. "It is anti-social."

They stood staring at the people enjoying the party, Sasuke watching a particularly suspicious pair out of the corner of his eye. They had their backs to him now, and appeared to be gazing out of Sakura's overly large windows.

A sound to his left made him turn. "What was that?"

Hinata jumped. She hadn't thought her mutter had been that loud.

"I didn't say anything."

Sasuke glared at her for a second. Deciding it wasn't important, he shrugged.

It didn't seem like Hinata was going to leave the hallway anytime soon. He couldn't really blame her though. He really didn't want to leave the hallway either. If he left the hallway, he'd have to go _mingle._ Just the thought of it made him shudder.

But something about the two men in the corner talking discreetly was calling to him. Perhaps he didn't really need to mingle. Maybe all he had to do was walk over there quickly to see what they were talking about and then walk back to the safety of the hallway. Yes, it was that easy.

He sauntered to the two men in the corner. As he got closer, their hushed conversation became a bit clearer.

"… I'm just trying to help him out…"

"… Yes, I know, but…" Kakashi trailed off.

"But what?"

"What if…" he seemed to lean in slightly. "What if Sasuke doesn't want help?"

"Of course he wants help! Have you seen the guy? Completely hopeless in the ladies department."

"As if you're any better…" Kakashi's mutter was barely audible from where Sasuke now stood, back to the two men, pretending to observe the ornate fireplace against the adjacent wall.

Naruto seemed not to have heard.

"If I don't help him get a girl, he'll never have a girl. Besides, who better than Sakura? She likes him, after all. How, I can't understand, but she likes him. At least we get to skip the step of getting someone to like him…"

"Naruto that's not what I'm saying."

"Oh?"

"What if… what if Sasuke doesn't want a girl?"

There was a pause. Then, "Why wouldn't he want a girl? That makes no sense."

"Well, when has Sasuke ever shown interest in girls? Not ever, I think…"

Sasuke scowled. Was Kakashi seriously insinuating that he was…?

"I don't understand," said Naruto's voice. He sounded confused.

There was a sigh and then Kakashi said, "Has it ever occurred that maybe Sasuke is…"

_You've got to be kidding me…_

"Gay?" Kakashi had lowered his voice but the word still carried over sharp and clear to where Sasuke stood clutching his bottle so hard it was a miracle it hadn't broken yet.

Naruto gasped. "What?"

Kakashi sounded resigned. "Yeah, it's the only explanation that makes sense. He's never had a girlfriend. Sakura and every other girl in town's practically thrown herself at him and he's never even glanced their way."

He paused, as if unsure if he should continue. Naruto kept silent, and Kakashi continued, though more hesitantly.

"And… well, everyone knows about that incident with that Orochimaru guy."

"Yeah… so?" Naruto's voice returned, this time a bit defensive.

"Nobody knows what happened when he kept Sasuke trapped in his basement. But I've heard rumors… they say the guy might have done strange things to Sasuke and… well, who knows, I've heard sometimes that people that come out of situations like that… they start to like the things that happened…"

Sasuke had heard enough. He turned away from the fireplace and walked back to his spot in the hallway.

He noticed vaguely that Hinata was still standing in the hallway, gazing at the room and seeming completely uninteresting in the goings-on.

Meanwhile, Sasuke took a swig of his bottle. He barely tasted it now, and there was a numb buzzing in his head.

There wasn't a thought in his head and he couldn't really bring himself to think anything. It was just… blank.

For a long time he stood there in shocked silence. Eventually, it started to wear off and his mind was able to think again. Think and feel. Feel anger.

How dare Naruto think he needed help getting girls? He could get girls anytime he wanted! And how dare Kakashi call him gay? How dare he suggest that he had been turned gay by that pale bastard that had kidnapped him a couple of years back?

How dare they…

For the first time ever, Sasuke wished he had a girlfriend. Just to shut those two up. They thought they knew so much… that would definitely show them.

Too bad he didn't have a girlfriend.

Maybe he'd get a girlfriend. Just to show those two how wrong they were.

Gay. He snorted. Sasuke was not… _gay._

He decided right then to get a girlfriend. The sooner he got a girlfriend, the faster he'd get his revenge.

Right now would be the perfect time, thought Sasuke angrily. He was so full of anger at the moment, from being forced to attend the party and then from hearing that he was gay, that nothing would make him feel better than getting revenge. Right then and there.

Nothing would make him happier.

An idea suddenly occurred to him, as if a light bulb had gone off in his head.

What if he got his revenge _right now_?

His lips turned up devilishly at the corners as he turned to his side.

Hinata was still gazing at the room blankly, seeming not to have noticed Sasuke leaving and returning.

She began to turn, however, when she felt his gaze on her.

"Are you ok," she asked him. His sudden attention to her was unnerving.

He didn't say anything, just continued to stare intently at her.

"Um… I guess you're unhappy because I'm in your hallway," she said, looking around her and realizing that she had been standing there for a very long time, probably invading the space he had tried to reserve for himself. "I'll go," she said hastily, making to rejoin the party.

"Wait," he said finally. "Could I ask you for a favor?" He realized that perhaps this wasn't the best way to go about it, but he wanted revenge, he wanted it now, and it wouldn't matter if he made the girl uncomfortable if he got what he wanted.

"Sure," she said, happy he wasn't staring at her with that weird half grin from earlier.

"Could you pretend to be my girlfriend?" He said this with the straightest face imaginable, as if he was asking someone a life-changing question instead of some absurd favor that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Hinata stared back, eyes wide in surprise. Then, she started to giggle. It started slowly at first, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. The giggles started to get louder until they became wide open laughs, and she bent over, hands on her knees, face red from mirth.

Her laugh got so loud at one point that several people from the party turned their heads their way.

It was at this point that Sasuke, confused and a bit annoyed by her amusement at his proposal, pulled her through one of the doors in the hallway. He didn't want her attracting attention.

She was still laughing as she was pulled roughly into a room that was garishly pink and orange.

She managed to say between laughs, "Very… funny! I didn't know… you liked to… tell jokes!"

Sasuke glared at her with his arms crossed, waiting for the laughing to stop.

Hinata continued for a good two minutes. When her laughs had quieted down, she said, "I had always heard that you were this really quiet guy without a sense of humor. They must have been pulling my leg."

Sasuke just continued to glare.

"I'm going to go now. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it," said Hinata, turning around to walk out the door.

Before she was able to grab the doorknob, Sasuke had grabbed her arm and whirled her around to face him.

"It wasn't a joke," he said quietly.

Hinata seemed confused. "You can't be serious..."

"Oh, but I am," he said, eyes sincere.

Hinata frowned. "That's a really weird favor to ask," she said as she walked over to the bed to sit.

"Yes, that's true," said Sasuke. "But it's a favor that I really need."

"Why would anyone need someone else to pretend to be his girlfriend?" It didn't make any sense.

Sasuke didn't say anything. He really hadn't wanted to explain anything, he hadn't wanted questions. All she had to do was say yes, and then he could go and rub it in Naruto's and Kakashi's faces that he wasn't gay. But no; she had to make it difficult. Just like a girl…

"Why wouldn't you just get a real girlfriend?" she asked.

This, Sasuke could answer.

"Because I don't want a girlfriend."

"Then why do you want a pretend girlfriend?"

"Because I don't want a real girlfriend."

"If you don't want a real girlfriend, why would you want a fake girlfriend?"

"You ask a lot of questions, you know."

"Only because the favor you're asking doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't have to make sense," said Sasuke. "You just have to do it, just for 5 minutes, it's not a lot I'm asking for."

"I don't know…"

He could see he was losing her.

"Listen," he said, thinking quickly. "I promise, if you pretend to be my girlfriend for just 5 minutes, I'll get us out of this party."

He knew he had her when her eyes widened.

"Really?"

He nodded.

"I can't do that," she said. Sasuke's face fell. "Neji and Tenten would notice I'd left and Sakura would be sad. She'll think I'd have left because I didn't like her…" She bit her lip in consternation, torn between what she wanted and what she knew everyone else wanted.

"That's not a problem," said Sasuke.

She looked up at him. "Are you sure it'll only be 5 minutes?"

He nodded.

"And that afterwards we can leave and you'll make sure I don't get in trouble?"

Sasuke nodded. "Trust me," he said quietly, knowing she just needed a last little nudge in his direction.

She sighed and then mumbled, "Ok."

Sasuke was elated. He was jumping for joy, screaming at the top of his lungs.

Inwardly anyway. Outwardly, he was just his usual cool self.

"Good," he said.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

Kakashi observed how Naruto seemed to have the very curious talent of being able to scrunch up his face.

He pouted so his lips went up, furrowed so his eyebrows went down, and squinted so his eyes were practically nonexistent. It really was amazing.

"Kakashi," said the upset voice coming from the scrunched mouth, "what if the reason Sasuke doesn't have a girlfriend is just because he hasn't found the right _type_ of girl?"

Kakashi rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe…"

Naruto nodded, glad to dispose of the notion of his friend being gay, if only to feel better about all the times they'd gone to the gym together.

He began to wonder what kind of girl would be Sasuke's type. As an image popped into his head, he began to laugh.

"What's so funny," asked Kakashi. Boy, Naruto sure could change moods quickly.

"Heh… it's just, I started thinking about what kind of girl would be Sasuke's type. Judging by the kind of person he is, she would probably eat bats and hate puppies. You know, someone dark and unsmiling and such."

"Heh. I know exactly what you mean." Laughter rang out heartily from the two men.

Then, out of nowhere a dangerous sounding voice quietly asked, "What exactly _do_ you mean?"

The men's laughter stopped abruptly as they slowly turned to the source of the question.

There, in a stiff collar and with a deep set scowl stood Sasuke, eyes hard in anger.

"Uh," mumbled the blonde, seemingly unable to form words.

The gray haired man beside him straightened his tie uncomfortably. "Well, uh, hello there Sasuke." He looked away from his hard black eyes, deciding instead to take a very long gulp from his glass.

Sasuke continued to glare at the pair. They continued looking at everywhere else but him.

"Kakashi, Naruto," he said, attempting to keep his tone steady. "I'd like you to meet my girlfriend."

From behind him, he pulled a delicate ivory hand forward. It was a girl. She was small, with large clear eyes and an air of nervousness about her. A blouse with a rounded neckline, a skirt that went past her knees and sensible heels made up her outfit. A hint of perfume and a pair of earrings were her only accessories.

With a small smile and in a voice difficult to hear over the party's din, she said, "Nice to meet you. Sasuke's told me a lot about the both of you." She stuttered a bit at the end.

Naruto's jaw hung slack and Kakashi's head tilted slightly to the side in confusion, both ogling at her as if she was a creature from another planet.

She began to blush in embarrassment, nervously wondering if perhaps she should have added that bit at the end. Had it been too much?

Meanwhile, Sasuke stood with his arm around her shoulders, a smug smirk creeping slowly onto his face.

"Now," he said, leaning forward into the two stunned men. " I believe you were saying something about bats."

* * *

Revenge had been sweet.

But even sweeter than that? He had managed to escape the party early, and had walked with Hinata down the street to the bus stop. From the bus stop, he had instructed Hinata to call Neji's cell phone and tell him that she had left the party early because she wasn't feeling well, and had decided not to ask him to take her home so he could enjoy the party.

He hadn't questioned it, probably because Tenten had been tugging him to the dance floor as they talked.

"That went well," she said as they sat on the empty bus, tumbling along the road towards Hinata's neighborhood. She seemed surprised, and Sasuke realized that she hadn't expected it to work at all.

"Of course it went well," he said. "That's how I planned it."

She smiled. "It was fun being your pretend girlfriend."

She turned to look out the window as the bus came to a stop.

"Well, this is my stop," she said. She looked at Sasuke pointedly.

"What?" he said, as he noticed her watching him.

"I need to get off."

Sasuke continued to sit.

"You need to move, I can't squeeze past you."

"Oh," he said, realizing that he needed to get up in order for her to pass.

But he still didn't.

"Can I please pass?" There was a plea in her voice now. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to run away from a party with some guy she didn't really know too well. What if he was dangerous? Now she was worried.

"If you don't let me pass, I'll scream really loud," she threatened, trying to sound strong.

Sasuke shook his head. "I'm going to let you pass. But first… I was thinking… the guys are going to wonder what happened with my girlfriend…"

Hinata raised her eyebrows. "Well… you can tell them we broke up because… I had jealousy issues or something."

Sasuke looked at her, his face blank of expression. "Yeah, I guess that makes sense…"

He stood up and let her pass.

"Bye," he said.

"Bye!" she said, somewhat breathlessly.

She walked to the front of the bus. She made her way quickly, anxious to get down the steps and off the bus. Then she'd be home and this strange day could be forgotten.

Just as her foot was touching the bottom step, something touched her arm.

"Wait."

She kicked herself inwardly. She should have ran down the steps instead of walked.

Still, she turned around and gave a tight smile. "Yes?"

His face was still expressionless, and his next words came out robotically.

"Maybe we could continue this whole charade. I can't have the guys think I have no girlfriend, they'll keep trying to set me up with Sakura."

"Well see, this works out great then. You break up with me, over jealousy issues of course, and then you get Sakura as your new girlfriend. Then they know you have a girlfriend, and Sakura's happy because she absolutely adores you. Great plan, right?"

She tried to pry her arm out of his grip, but he held strong.

"I don't like Sakura," he said quietly, his eyes boring into hers.

She couldn't say anything; the intensity of his eyes was too much.

"I think perhaps I could take you to dinner or something. You know, as a pretend couple." He looked away as he said this and that was when she realized it; he was too shy to really ask her out.

She was flattered, and she could feel the dreaded blood rushing to her cheeks.

"Sure," she said, unable to meet his gaze. "We'll be a pretend couple."

Satisfied with her answer, he let her go, but not before saying, "Bye. See you at our pretend date."

The doors shut behind her and he returned to his seat, secretly smiling to himself.

At least now nobody would think he was gay, and Sakura would be devastated.

He couldn't have planned it better than if he had actually planned it.

And for once, he was excited about having a girlfriend. Even if it was only a pretend one.

* * *

A/N: Subliminal messages! Garish orange and pink room! Which characters wear and orange and pink? Perhaps Naruto should stop trying to set up Sasuke and try to set up himself instead. XD

And did any of you notice how Kakashi took a drink from his glass? Yes, he was not wearing a mask and you don't know what it looks like under there, bwahaha! And Sasuke was carrying around his own bottle, in reference to is alcohol problem in a previous chapter. Bwahaha!

And just for the record; Sasuke is 100 hetero... unless we're talking yaoi, which is totally different.

Now run away and review your little fingers off, mah darlings.


	19. Fluorescense

A/N: I'm not sure about this one. It seems lacking.

But I like it for some reason. Even though there's no rhyme or reason to it.

Hope you like it anyway.

* * *

_Fluorescense  
_

It was silent as she sat at the kitchen table. The stark white light from the fluorescent lamp overhead seemed strangely at odds with the muted warm glows from outside. It helped to bring her back to reality.

He entered through the kitchen doorway, taking off his jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. He cast her a sweeping glance as he walked quickly behind her to open the fridge.

"You want anything?" he asked, his voice muffled from being surrounded by groceries.

She shook her head and then, remembering he couldn't see her, said, "No." It came out sounding strangely high. She clapped her hand over her mouth, hoping he hadn't noticed.

He had but pretended not to as he continued to rummage in the back of the fridge for what he was looking for.

Finally, after what felt like too much time but was actually no more than a few seconds, the fridge slammed and he was walking back to the chair with the jacket draped across its back.

He sat down heavily and sighed, setting down the lemon lime soda down with a dull _thud._ He frowned down at it as he turned it with one hand, seemingly reading the labeling. Then, as if deciding whether to drink from it or not, he stared at it, long and hard. With an imperceptible nod, he grabbed it and drank. It made weird _glug_ sounds as it went down his throat, as quickly as if it was pure water instead of gaseous soda.

Abruptly, he stopped, having noticed her wide-eyed gaze on him. He grimaced as she looked away, embarrassed at being caught staring, and put down the bottle.

It did no good to stall. But really, he didn't know what else he could do. What else he was _supposed_ to do.

Less than an hour ago, he had been so sure. There had never been a time that he'd been so certain.

Now however… well, now he wasn't sure if he'd been thinking clearly.

It was harder to believe here, surrounded as he was by the bright white cabinets, with the harsh fluorescence of the light overhead, that a person could honestly feel that way about someone else. Impossible to believe that an hour ago had been real.

Both of them had almost convinced themselves that it had all been a dream. It was too hard to believe.

Especially right now, as both of them just looked at each other, trying to find some of that sincerity that was so apparent an hour ago.

He sighed, and she knew he hadn't found it. She frowned. She hadn't either.

She'd found something else though. Something she wasn't sure how to react to. A strange sort of longing, an intensity that she didn't quite understand.

And as he'd looked away, it disappeared. His gaze now looked… tired.

She wondered if that's how she now looked too.

"Goodnight," he murmured, slowly standing up to leave.

"Goodnight," she said quietly.


	20. Glow

A/N: The warm glow before the harsh fluorescence.

This is where it began and you know how it ends.

Enjoy, or I'll call a secret government organization on you.  


* * *

The night was cool, the air silky against their faces. The lights of the city reflected on the water, turning harsh, neon advertisements into beautiful distorted rainbows that shimmered and broke when the little rocks he threw into the water created ripples in its surface.

From faraway, they could hear metropolitan sounds, thousands of voices, a muffled murmur, so unimportant here beneath the half-moon light. The trees whispered sweet nothings to the shy sidewalk, closed and cold as it was, that only now, in the light of the rising moon, showed itself for what it truly was, a full range of shimmering blues and grays.

It was beautiful, without a doubt, and there was still a blush leftover on her cheeks from the dinner table's candle, that waxy warm thing that had only intensified the already present rouge upon her cheeks. She'd stumbled in holding her silverware, the sharp edge of the knife turning out of her hand in one of her many startled moments. More startling, he'd flown over, napkin out like soft gauze, to wipe up the viscous red stuff that spewed from the gash on her leg.

More blushing had ensued. He'd been so close. So awkwardly close. It had been terribly difficult to resist fidgeting.

She didn't though, and worked to keep from smiling when he himself had crashed against the table in his effort to bend down and retrieve the faulty cutlery. He'd cursed and blamed her to cover up his embarrassment, but she knew the truth.

She had thanked the establishment for providing such large menus, allowing for time to grin contentedly behind the laminate and faux leather, to wonder if perhaps she should pay more attention to the menu rather than wondering if he was doing the same as she. Incidentally, he was.

Luckily, the waiters brought their food out quickly, and they stopped trying to make small talk, instead concentrating on making sure they didn't use their fingers as they were so tempted to, or dribble any sort of anything on their clothes, which were so nice and uncomfortable. Attaining adulthood was, after all, all about the eager acceptance of such impediments.

Eventually, dessert had saved them from passing the interminable period between courses. He, of course, ordered nothing, but watched her as she ate hers. Just having one dish of sweetness on the table saved them both from agony.

As soon as they were out that glowing restaurant, they felt free. It was here they realized the stifling nature of the indoors, how nature couldn't take its course where nature wasn't present. Surrounded by the angular geometry of the damned room, so full of other stifled and awkward people, had not been the best idea. Here, in the cool autumn air, everything made more sense.

She made sense.

He made sense.

The sensations made sense, those wrenching feelings in their chests, the little jumps, the little inaudible sighs they both refused to release.

The glow from the city made it possible, the glow from her content face made it possible, the glow that intensified once they were together… it made it possible.

Here, walking across this ancient stone bridge, he took her hand, firm and sure, but nothing could conceal the way he refused to look her in the eyes. He was afraid, just like her, but refused to show it. He was the stoic one, a fact that should not be forgotten.

And she, the shy one. She was grateful for the limited light, the glow that diffused the burning pink of her face.

He still noticed it, and it brought him secret pleasure, knowing it was their because of him and _for_ him.

Eventually, their hands hot over one another, they had stopped at the edge of the bridge, and they hadn't let go, even when he'd bent to pick up little stones to throw into the water, competing on whose could go farther.

His went farther every time.

Eventually, they had said all the wonderful things they'd reserved for the dinner table, but were unable to say because of its closed nature, closed nature due to its lack of real nature, the kind they were in now, that allowed them to let nature take its course.

They did let nature take its course. He'd finally dropped his guard, threw aside his dignity, slid it under the dreaded saw of rejection, to tell her what he'd been thinking the entire night: that she was beautiful. Always beautiful, though he never said it.

And she had shyly peeked up from under her eyelashes to thank him for his kind comment, her heart thumping against her chest so violently she was sure he'd hear it.

He didn't; he was too worried that she'd be hearing _his_.

She'd thrown caution and her carefully maintained bubble against rebuff to the winds, and said what she'd known all along and refused to acknowledge for fear of pain: she liked him; she liked him very much, and had liked him very much for a very long time.

It had all been leading up to that moment, the moment they felt they'd been waiting for their entire lives, when he finally looked at her with cautious eyes, raised a hand to push aside her hair, while she closed her eyes and readied herself for him.

He was slow and careful, for his sake as much as for hers, and the caress of his lips on her was slow and building, the warmth fixing the things he had cracked in the past. Warm, rough hand resting lightly against the nape of her neck, causing her to shudder, causing her to push herself closer into the warmth of his lips.

Warm, rough hand clutching her closer at the waist, while her own arms instinctually climbed upwards, like lily vines, to wrap themselves around his pale neck.

Slow, warm, building, intense, and passionate. It lasted but a minute.

But the glow burned on, warming him and her from inside their very core, their hearts melting with the heat of the glow.

There was no way this could ever end.


End file.
